Malo - The Octopus God .

Nungali · March 10, 2023

I like this story. Occasionally in my anthropological studies I come across a gem . A few years back ( due to 'emergency situation' - threatened collapse of culture , imminent loss of important knowledge , etc ) certain Aboriginal elders started to reveal previously secret knowledge about how the immensely complex Australian Aboriginal 'social system worked . I started about 10,000 ya, by the inspired vision of an artist and solved immense problems and allowed all the people to live together .

This thread isn't about that though ... that is just another example of the ingenuity of the 'primitive' ancients , in regard to 'social engineering' , finding and implementing social systems that work .... and getting the people to accept them . The story of Malo is one of these . I think it is ingenious.

From the 'outside' ; Someone or group realised potential discord and trouble in the Torres Straight Islands ( spread from the north tip of Oz up to New Guinea ) . There where different peoples and different cultures from different island groups , but focus was becoming more prominent on Murray Island ( perhaps something to do with resources there ? ) . What was going to happen, they where going to 'intersect' and overlap and they had all different Gods . Then someone thought up, 'realised' or was inspired to : ' But the God of THIS island is an octopus . Octopus has 8 arms and they cover the island and go out into the sea in all directions . And all of you 8 different tribes and all of your different Gods are arms of Malo , reaching out and drawing you into himself . You are all different but now work together under Malo and work to help and look after each other . '

I guess people either thought ' Yeah, makes sense.' or just thought it was a good solution.

( Another interesting thing here is that Octopus has 9 brains , one 'satellite' brain for each tentacle and one main toroid * shaped one in the head . .... )

The story from the inside : " Malo was one of four brothers who sailed from New Guinea. A strong wind separated them and Malo sailed on alone until a big wave sank his canoe at Mer. But Malo was very powerful. He drifted around the islands, transforming himself into sea creatures and finally an octopus. A woman called Kabur was fishing and the strong waves carried Malo towards her. He entwined himself around her. Kabur speared the octopus, placed him in her basket and took Malo ashore. Then Meriam hailed Malo, "Keriba agud, ged seker em. Our God, our protector." The men of Las said, "Let there be no more fighting between us. Let Malo remain here to be a god for all. - So Malo gave the Meriam laws and ceremonies to govern their lives. "

The system is still in place today .

Malo ;

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