To continue the story of the origin of mankind, we are going to look at the stories of creation in the Pacific Island region, which includes the islands of Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, and many more. The people of these islands are said to have sailed from the mainland of China and slowly dispersed throughout the many islands in Melanesia and Polynesia.

Island migration

Beginning with Samoa, it is said that the earliest trace of human occupation in this island can be dated back to 1050 BCE. Austronesian speaking people inhabited the island, which eventually developed its own culture, language, and creation story. Samoan culture is similar the neighboring islands of Tonga and Fiji, which were settled around the same time. It is believed that these three islands “served as a gateway into the rest of the Pacific region known as Polynesia” (Wikipedia.org).

The creation story of the Samoans was first recorded by anthropologists Lowell and Ellen Holmes, meaning the story had not been written down before then. It is common among these islands for history to be passed down orally, through memory and repetition, not written on paper or in textbooks.

In Samoan mythology, Tagaloa is the supreme deity who is the chief of all gods, and the beginning and source of all life.

Carving of Tagaloa

Tagaloa resided in space before the universe was created, and created the heavens and the earth, the trees, the sky, the land, the sea, and the people. According to myth, the beginning of time only consisted of the heavens, and the waters which covered the earth. Tagaloa looked down from his high place, and desired to create a place where he could stand, called Manu’atele (which in google translate means “the great wound”). The supreme deity was pleased with his resting place, and thought about making another. So, he split the Manu’atele rock into many pieces that would serve as his stepping stones. Among these pieces were the islands Savai’i, Upolu, Tonga, Fiji, and many others that scattered the great ocean. The rock from which it was all split, Manu’atele, was called Samoa.

The island of Samoa

Tagaloa felt that the distances between the rocks was too great, so he created a sacred vine to spread over them. As the vine grew, its leaves fell off and turned into “worm like things” that had no heads, arms, legs, or life. The deity saw these worms, and gave them bodies and beating hearts, consequently creating mankind.

The story continues with Tagaloa placing a man and a woman on each of the islands in order to populate his creation. With this, he created different titles in order to help the govern the vast region, such as the title Tui, which meant king. Since there was so much to govern, Tagaloa felt that there should be one king who presided over all, and he chose the son of Day and Night for this special role. This King was named Satia i Ie Moaatoa, which meant “attached at the abdomen”. He was named this because once he was born, he suffered a great wound when he was ripped from the abdomen of his mother. He resided in Samoa, which means “sacred abdomen”, with all of his people.

Samoan civilization

Satia I le Moaatoa, once grown, became the Tuimanu’a Moaatoa,

the King of all Kings.

This is the origin story according to Samoan culture. In future weeks we will analyze more and more stories, and we will make connections between them all.

…to be continued…