Sea of talanoa: A creation story from Tonga

‘Talanoa’ is a term that refers to more than just ‘story’. The term ‘talanoa’ also refers to the act of ‘telling’ stories as well as to the ‘conversation’ event around stories. The term ‘talanoa’ refers to three subjects: story, telling, conversation.

It is fair to say that a sea of talanoa ripple across Pasifika – lest i be mistaken, i see Aotearoa as part of Pasifika. We have too many talanoa to tell, and re-Story, and with this article i will begin to share some of our native talanoa.

 Because i am a Tongan, i will begin with a Tongan talanoa. But i invite readers to engage with this talanoa as a sacred story. It is one of the sacred stories that give Tongans meaning, and sense of belonging.

 ‘Ata and the first Tongans

 This is my maternal grandmother’s version of one of the Tongan creation stories:

 In the beginning, there were only Moana (sea) and Pulotu (underworld). At the southern edge of Moana, a reef rose up to become the island of ‘Ata. One day, a plover bird (kiu, named Tangaloa ‘Atulongolongo) came from the sky to visit ‘Ata. It dropped a seed onto the island.

The next time Tangaloa ‘Atulongolongo visited, it found a creeper that had grown from the seed. It pecked at the root of this creeper, until it split in two.

A few days later Tangaloa ‘Atulongolongo returned to find that the root had rotted and a fat, juicy maggot (‘uanga) was curled up in it. It pecked the maggot in two. The top section turned into a person named Kohai – who was female. The bottom section turned into another person named Koau – who was male.

Then Tangaloa ‘Atulongolongo felt a crumb (momo) on its beak; it shook the crumb off, and it turned into a third person named Momo – my grandmother said that she did not remember their gender.

Kohai, Koau, and Momo were the first humans on ‘Ata. Maui brought partners for them from Pulotu and they became the ancestors of the native peoples of Tonga.

 Questions

 This is not such a strange talanoa. We know that fire comes up from the deep to form islands, and our islands sit on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire.

 We know that animals inhabit islands before humans do, and we know that Maui used to travel back and forth between the world of the living and the realm of the ancestors – to bring fire, and in this talanoa, to bring partners so that the native peoples of Tonga come to being.

 We also know that with every talanoa, the details are inspiring. With this particular talanoa, the details raise questions that tease our inquiring minds:

(1) How did Tangaloa ‘Atulongolongo carry the seed to ‘Ata?

(2) Who are the ancestors of the Tongans?

(3) Do we count the ‘uanga and kiu among our ancestors?

(4) What was the gender of Momo?

 There are other questions, but this sacred story also invites other forms of engagement.

 Moana world/views

 In several essays that i recently published, i used this sacred story to identify four bodies in the Moana worlds – sea (Moana), (is)land ( ‘Ata), sky (from where Tangaloa ‘Atulongolongo came), and Pulotu (underworld, from where Maui brought partners for Kohai, Koau, and Momo).

 Based on this sacred story, i have suggested that ‘Moana world/views’ involve finding, and interweaving, these four bodies in texts and teachings. I use ‘Moana world/views’ to indicate that worldviews are linked to worlds.

 Seeing and recognizing these four Moana bodies help one see their presence in other sacred texts as well. For example, they are present and inferred in the opening verses of the first creation story in the Bible:

 When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Gen 1:1–2 NRSVue, my italics)

 The four Moana bodies are present in this sacred story as well: sky is inferred in (the unfortunate choice of word) ‘heavens’; (is)land is named ‘earth’; sea is present in ‘the waters’ (which was divided on Day Two into two bodies – water above, and water below, the sky); and the underworld is imagined in ‘the deep’.

 The Moana bodies also invite one to read the biblical story critically. For instance, the biblical story locates ‘wind’ with God, but Moana world/views locate wind with sea and sky. Wind is generated in the sea and comes across the sky.

 The Māori talanoa of Tāwhirimātea, the God of clouds and storms, locates wind in the (is)land as well. Tāwhirimātea is the child of Papatuānuku (earth, land) and Ranginui (sky). In locating wind in three Moana bodies – sea, sky, (is)land – the Moana world/views problematize the location of wind with God in the biblical story.

 Moreover, attention to the four Moana bodies also invites reconsideration of how we deal with some of the modern challenges that we face. With respect to climate change, for instance, most debates focus on (is)land and sea but tend to ignore sky and underworld. Even the attention to (is)land and sea tends to be anthropocentric.

 In Moana worlds, on the other hand, the rising of the sea and the warming of the (is)land have a lot to do with the energies in the sky and the movements in the underworld, where a sea of fire flow under the sea and (is)land. The four Moana bodies thus urge us to think beyond our anthropocentric biases.