Creator-Mother
Huli · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Huli wali = 'woman'; her epithet Honabe wali glosses as 'the woman Honabe', the earth/creator-mother. As a primordial procreatrix who founds the divine order she is rendered here as a deity (ancestress-creatress tier); the Huli classify lesser nature-spirits as dama but Honabe stands above that class. Mother of the sun (Ni), moon (Hana) and the eponymous ancestor Hela.
Children
Domains
- earth and fertility
- ancestral origins
- creation
Powers
- BRING FORTH the first generation of deities
- Brings forth the first generation of deities and of the world's creatures
Relations
- spouse: Sky-FatherEarth/creator-mother Honabe and the sky-father Timbu are the Huli procreator pair whose union founds the divine order.Glasse, R. M., 'The Huli of Papua: A Cognatic Descent System' (1968); Ballard, C., 'The Death of Jesus and the Death of the Ancestors' (Oceania, 1995) (secondary)
- ancestor of: Ancestor of the HuliHela the apical ancestor already registers Honabe and Timbu as parents; mirrored ancestral note from the mother.Glasse, R. M., 'The Huli of Papua' (1968), Huli genealogy of the creator pair's children (secondary)
- ancestor of: SunNi (sun) and Hana (moon) are among the children of Honabe and Timbu; recorded as ancestor-of to preserve their deity tier.Ballard, C., on Huli cosmology (Oceania, 1995); Glasse, R. M., 'The Huli of Papua' (1968) (secondary)
Sources
- Honabe (Honabe wali, 'the woman Honabe') was the first goddess to inhabit the land; seduced by the male sky-being Timbu, she bore five gods (Korimogo, Heyolabe, Piandela, Ni and Hela) and one goddess (Hana), and is reckoned the grandmother-ancestress of the Huli and surrounding peoples.: Glasse, R.M. (1965). 'The Huli of the Southern Highlands.' In Lawrence & Meggitt (eds.), Gods Ghosts and Men in Melanesia. Oxford University Press. (ethnography); Frankel, S. (1986). The Huli Response to Illness. Cambridge University Press, ch. on cosmology. (ethnography)