World-Maker

The active world-shaper of Kiribati cosmogony, distinct from Nareau the Elder; foregrounded as a creator/culture-hero figure and entered as demigod per the brief (son of the primal being). Riiki the sky-lifting eel and the tree Kai-n-tiku-aba are core attested motifs.

Parentage

• The First Rock

Domains

• ordering of the world

Powers

• sets the eel Riiki to prise apart sky and earth
• raises the tree from which people grow

Relations

• sibling: Sky-Lifting Eel
• sibling: World-Heaving Octopus
• enemy: Thunderer

Sources

• Grimble, Arthur. 'Myths from the Gilbert Islands' (Folklore, 1922)
• Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions: Writings on the Atoll Culture of the Gilbert Islands (ed. H.E. Maude, 1989)