KacheliTV opens a new shelf with the island of Niue, alone in the South Pacific — and with the oldest telling of its own beginnings ever printed: the traditions written down at Liku in October 1901 by Pulekula, a teacher at Tama-ha-le-leka, and translated by S. Percy Smith for the Journal of the Polynesian Society in 1903. This is a single-episode country: one honest episode is all the early record holds, and the shelf claims no more than that.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
In "The Five Tupua Prepare the Island," five gods who were never given a portion at the feasts flee the Lost Land, rise from a pool in the reef, and make Niue ready for people. "How the Flying Fox Stole the Rat's Wings" tells why the creeping animal flies and the flying bird must creep, down to the cries they still exchange. "The Two Travellers and the Coconut" follows Vai-Matagi and Vai-Fualolo to Tutuila, to a king who never lifts his eyes, and home again with the first coconuts — and with the island's lasting name, Niue-fekai. "Folahau and the Waters" tells why Niue's sweetest waters run back down into the chasms and will not flow. "Puga and the First Fishing Net" is the trick by which Niue learned net-making from the gods. And "Three Short Wonders of the Old Island" gathers Maui thrusting up the low sky, Tau-fiti-pa escaping through a split rock, and the mirror spring at Tuo.
Set aside at the gate, recorded plainly: the marriages of Lage-iki, in which the women died; Hina-hele-ki-fata, wronged and beaten; Gini-fale, swallowed by the whale; Mutalau and Matuku-hifi, a watchman beheaded; Popo-efu, caught in a net and made a wife; the sick girl Mele, who died and returned singing; the "Savage Island" naming anecdote, which rests on a feigned man-eating display; Fakahoko's storm signs, under which canoes were destroyed; the warrior Laufoli and the cannibal Toloa; and the kings and the later history, with their wars. Held for the owner's ruling: Matila-foafoa, the child cast away by his father — the abandonment is the tale itself, so it is neither built nor cut, but held by name. Edwin Loeb's great 1926 collection of Niue traditions could not be used at all: its author died in 1966, outside the public-domain gate. No completeness is claimed for this record.
Teller, kept with honour: Pulekula of Liku, teacher at Tama-ha-le-leka, who wrote these traditions down in the Niuean language in October 1901.
Chapters:
01:48 The Five Tupua Prepare the Island
06:30 How the Flying Fox Stole the Rat's Wings
09:03 The Two Travellers and the Coconut
13:33 Folahau and the Waters
15:20 Puga and the First Fishing Net
18:25 Three Short Wonders of the Old Island
Source: Pulekula, "The Traditions of Niue-Fekai," Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 12 (1903), Appendix, pp. 22–31 and 85–118, translated by S. Percy Smith (1840–1922); public-domain 1903 edition (Internet Archive). Our telling is a fresh in-house rendering of the 1903 text. Music: opening and closing theme, "2-20".
Thank you for listening.
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Niue folk tales, Niuean legends, Polynesian folk tales, Pacific island folklore, S. Percy Smith, Journal of the Polynesian Society, world folk tales, free audiobook
