Malo

Malo — invoked in full as Malo-Bomai — was the supreme deity of Mer (Murray Island) and the focus of the eastern islands' great secret cult before the London Missionary Society reached the strait in 1871. In the Meriam account he was one of several brothers who set out from the New Guinea coast; separated from them by a storm and wrecked off Mer, he drifted among the reefs, changing his shape into a succession of sea creatures and at last into an octopus. In this form he was speared by a woman named Kabur as she fished and carried ashore in her basket, whereupon the Meriam acclaimed him as their god and protector. Malo gave the people their law, their ceremonies and the discipline of the fraternity that bore his name; the eight arms of the octopus were read as the god reaching out to bind the districts of the island under a single rule. His code — that each person keep hands and feet from what belongs to another — remains among the most cited statements of Islander customary law. Bomai is the sacred, secret name of the same power, spoken only by initiates; sources differ on whether Bomai and Malo were originally two beings, an uncle and his sister's son who became one, or a single deity known by an outer and an inner name.

Domains

• law and custom
• sea
• initiation and cult

Powers

• gives law and ceremony to the Meriam
• transforms into sea creatures and an octopus

Relations

• companion: BomaiMalo is the public name and Bomai the secret inner name of the same divine power; sources differ on whether the two were originally an uncle and nephew who became one being.Haddon, A.C. (ed.) 1908. Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. VI. Cambridge University Press. (primary)

Sources

• Malo (Malo-Bomai) was the supreme deity of Mer and focus of the eastern islands' secret cult, worshipped before the arrival of the London Missionary Society in 1871.: Haddon, A.C. (ed.) 1908. Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. VI. Cambridge University Press. (primary); Sharp, Nonie. 1993. Stars of Tagai. Aboriginal Studies Press. (secondary)
• Malo was one of several brothers from New Guinea, wrecked at Mer, who took the form of an octopus and was speared by the woman Kabur and brought ashore, becoming the god and lawgiver of the Meriam.: Sharp, Nonie. 1993. Stars of Tagai: The Torres Strait Islanders. Aboriginal Studies Press. (secondary)