By BETTY GABRIEL WAKIA
Much is talked about Datagaliwabe throughout Hela, nearby provinces and even the entirety of Papua New Guinea. Let me take you to Datagaliwabe. The Huli have a mixture of myths and legends that explain the origins of the gods, clan founders, the creation of all living things and other vital components of Huli life. The Huli believe that in the beginning, there was land and the deities. The deities, such as sun and moon, the Ni and Hana, live in the sky.
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| Hela huli wigmen |
The Huli High God, Datagaliwabe, was the original Supreme Spirit to come from the sky who created the land and other deities. Datagaliwabe was replaced by Honabi wali, the demiurge from whom all life flowed. Her children, Ni and Hana, are the focus of many Huli fertility rites. The first goddess to inhabit the land was Honabe wali. She was seduced by Timbu, the male deity, and gave birth to five gods, Korimogo, Heyolabe, Piandela, Ni and Hela, and one goddess, Hana.
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| Culture group from Hela Obene |
Many Huli regard all these deities as very powerful beings, but deity Heyolabe as the most dangerously evil of them all. After a time, she gave birth to eight other deities, the first bird, possum and pig, hills, trees, bows and arrows, and fire and water. She is the grandmother goddess of the Huli people and surrounding cultures, the Obene, Duna, Duguba and Hewa peoples. Otherwise, they all speak different languages, have their own spirits and their own styles of worship.
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| Hela Hewa tribes men performing a warrior dance using the bows & arrows |
The deity Hela married an unknown woman who bore him four sons, Obene, Huli, Duna and Duguba. They had a fight which resulted in Obene fleeing to live in the Magarima area, Duna to Lake Kopiago and Duguba to Mount Bosavi, while Huli remained in the Tagari river basin. They were the first human beings and each founded the cultural group that is known to the Huli by those same names.
The Huli calm these deities and seek their assistance through oblation of pigs, red paints, pig fat, cowrie and kina shells, crops and special plant leaves. Some deities like Ni and Korimogo consume the blood and aroma of prepared pigs while the other deities delight in pig fat offerings which are rubbed on sacred stones. Datagaliwabe and Heyalobe cannot be propitiated by any ritual means, although the former is placated by proper moral conduct.
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| Duguba tribes from Mount Bosavi |
The deity Heyalobe was regarded as dama, the Satan. He control the forces of nature and would deceive the Huli people to do evil things. If Huli people did not follow Heyalobe’s instructions, he would attack them directly causing sickness, accident or death or indirectly through witches, corpses, stones, sticks or other ritual objects that are imbued with their presence. If they pleased Heyalobe, he would help them in their endeavors. To avoid attack, the Huli people would placate and win the favour of Heyalobe by tricking him to protect themselves.
Long ago, in order to confuse the deities, Huli men would traverse deep forests and climb mountain peaks speaking a derivative of the Huli language called Tayanda Bi. They also tricked the Heyalobe by constructing symbolic gates to block paths as they walked through the forest. The Datagaliwabe is a unique supreme being, who, unlike Ni and Hana, is not referred to as dama but only by name. He is someone who the Huli people never play around with. They feel his presence more powerfully than other deities.
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| Gigira Laitebo in Hides, Hela Province |
He is a giant High God, who looks down from the sky to punish lying, stealing, adultery, incest, murder of related kin and disregard of ritual taboos. Huli say if you do something evil Datagaliwabe will be watching you. Datagaliwabe was known to the Huli as a bringer of punishment upon those who infringed kinship laws. The only way to please him is proper moral behavior. He would never be placated by pigs as sacrifices and doesn’t accept prayers, dances or other rituals.
The Datagaliwabe looks favorably upon those who obey kinship rules and helps them in their daily affairs. He speaks directly to whoever pleases him in the form of dreams, visions, prophecies and special insights. He also speaks to Huli needs in term of the good life: salvation and power for living. Only the righteous and holy people are taken to dahulianda, the heaven. The Pari clan in South Koroba (a home to the descendant of the sun god, the Ni), regard the place as dahulianda dogo, the bridge to heaven. The Datagaliwabe uses that place for his holy people to cross to heaven.
In the legend of Ira Hari, there is a sacred tree through which all of the earth’s waters pass into the heavens only to fall again as rain. Men tried to build a bridge to heaven on this tree using rope and timber but were unsuccessful. Their language was confused as they worked on the bridge resulting in the disruption of their plans to reach the house of the deities and this was the creation of various other languages.
The Datagaliwabe showed the Huli people dreams and visions of aircraft, truck and also the return of Tahonane, the Hulis’ long lost white brother. The first Huli man Tagonimabe has two sons, Tahonane born white and Tamindini born black. Tahonane was nursed by a great god, grew quickly and left the Huli area never to die. Tamindini nursed at his mother’s breast, and became the father of all the Huli people through his son, Tiliali. The first white men the Huli people encountered were Jack Hides and Peter O’Malley. They looked queerly at the two explorers and whispered excitedly among themselves about their long lost white brother who had returned.
One of the prophecies that has come to pass is Gigira Laitebo legend called Kwai Topo. In this legend, the wise men of Hela spoke many generations ago that their land possessed the Gigira Laitebo or everlasting fire and that one day this would so shine that the faraway lands would be attracted by it and they would come to their doorstep. Today the people of Hela are seeing the men with the orange legs from faraway lands trying to take the fire from them.
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| River in the rain forest of Mount Bosavi. It is a place that is well known for unknown species |
The Datagaliwabe transformed himself into the sun god, the Ni, resulting in a combination of the supreme-being with the sun god to form one supreme-being, the Ni. Ni is a creator god who makes the fertility of the earth and increases the abundance of life for his children, Ni honowini. One of the Ni honowini who makes the fertility of the earth is the famous huli legend of Baya Baya. He was regarded as Jesus who stayed among the Huli people. Prophecy states that the descendant from Ni honowini would one day will come and light up the caves and tunnels of Hela Province. The Huli ancestors said that when that day came, it would be the sign of the last days.
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