Creator-Mother

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

• Moon
• Ancestor of the Huli
• Malevolent God
• Firstborn God
• Sun
• Piandela

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-Father
• ancestor of: Ancestor of the Huli
• ancestor of: Sun

Sources

• Glasse, R.M. (1965). 'The Huli of the Southern Highlands.' In Lawrence & Meggitt (eds.), Gods Ghosts and Men in Melanesia. Oxford University Press.
• Frankel, S. (1986). The Huli Response to Illness. Cambridge University Press, ch. on cosmology.