Meavea Kivovia

Meavea Kivovia is the named ancestor-hero of an Eastern Elema clan tradition of Orokolo Bay, Papua New Guinea. His myth was the first of the Elema clan myths (lou-oharo) published by Herbert A. Brown for the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies in 1975, and it was retranslated with annotation in Brown's Three Elema Myths (1988); an independent telling was published by Fareho Miva in the journal Oral History in 1978. In the Eastern Elema version of the clan myth shared with the neighbouring Purari Delta peoples, the clan ancestor bears this name, making Meavea Kivovia a point of mythological connection between the Elema and their western neighbours.

Domains

• clan origins

Powers

• to perform the ancestral deeds recounted in his clan's myth and so establish its charter

Sources

• H.A. Brown, Meavea Kivovia: A Myth of the Orokolo People (Clan Myths of the Elema, Gulf of Papua, vol. 1), Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Port Moresby, 1975
• H.A. Brown, Three Elema Myths: Recorded in Toaripi, Translated and Annotated, Pacific Linguistics D-80, Australian National University, Canberra, 1988
• Fareho Miva, 'Legends of the Gulf Province: The Story of Meovea Kivovia', Oral History (Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies), 1978