Malafulafu (Protector God of Nature)

Malafulafu is a Futunan divinity charged with the protection of the natural world. Like other lesser gods of Futuna he was believed able to manifest in animal form, the tutelary beasts of the island including the turtle, the dog, the dove and the whale; he is further distinguished by a 'stone of life and death' through which he could give or take life. In the founding genealogy he is one of the children of the ancestral couple Mago and Tafaleata, and thus a brother of the goddess Finelasi and the war-god Fakavelikele. His association with the wild land connects him to the vao tapu, the sacred forest tracts that traditional Futunan and Wallisian religion regarded as reservoirs of life.

Parentage

• Mago (Ancestral Father of the Alo Lineage)
• Tafaleata (Ancestral Mother of the Alo Lineage)

Domains

• nature wilderness
• life and death

Powers

• to protect the forests and living things of the land
• to appear in the form of animals such as the turtle, dog, dove or whale
• to grant life or deal death by means of a sacred stone

Relations

• sibling: Finelasi (Protective Goddess of Futuna)

Sources

• Abbal, Odon. 'Les mythes de Wallis et Futuna.' Nîmes: Académie de Nîmes (academia.edu working paper).
• Guiot, Hélène. 'Gestion traditionnelle des espaces forestiers à Futuna (Polynésie occidentale): Contenu idéel et pratiques associées.' Journal de la Société des Océanistes 110 (2000): 61-75.
• Burrows, Edwin G. Ethnology of Futuna. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 138. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1936.