Marai

Marai (also spelled Mairi) is one of the two named figures of the Orokolo myth 'Marai and Eare', one of the three Elema clan myths recorded in the Toaripi language and published with translation and annotation by Herbert A. Brown in 1988. An independent version, 'A Legend about Mairi and Eare', was published by Aihi Kekeo in Papua New Guinea's Oral History journal in 1978. Like the other lou-oharo (clan myths) of the Elema, the narrative of Marai and Eare served as a charter of clan identity and tradition at Orokolo Bay.

Domains

• clan origins

Powers

• to enact, with Eare, the ancestral events recounted in the Orokolo clan myth bearing their names

Relations

• companion: Eare

Sources

• H.A. Brown, Three Elema Myths: Recorded in Toaripi, Translated and Annotated, Pacific Linguistics D-80, Australian National University, Canberra, 1988
• Aihi Kekeo, 'A Legend about Mairi and Eare', Oral History (Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies), 1978