Kaitu'u
Rennell & Bellona · mortal · Rennell & Bellona traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kaitu'u is the great ancestral culture-hero of Rennell and Bellona, remembered as the leader of the migration that brought the Polynesian settlers from the homeland of 'Ubea in the two canoes from which the classic collection of oral traditions takes its name. On reaching the islands his people encountered and in time displaced the aboriginal hiti. As eponym of the senior Kaitu'u clan he stands at the head of the genealogies through which the islanders reckon their descent, and as a worshipped ancestor he held an honoured place in the pre-Christian cult alongside the gods.
Domains
- migration
- ancestry
- settlement
Powers
- leads the ancestral migration in the two canoes
- founds the senior clan
Relations
- companion: NguatinihenuaElbert, Samuel H., and Torben Monberg. From the Two Canoes. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1965. (secondary)
Sources
- Kaitu'u was the ancestral culture-hero who led the migration from 'Ubea to Rennell and Bellona in the two canoes and became eponym of the senior clan and a worshipped ancestor.: Elbert, Samuel H., and Torben Monberg. From the Two Canoes: Oral Traditions of Rennell and Bellona Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1965. (secondary); Monberg, Torben. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. (secondary)