This is the story of the last (or one of the last) voyages (holau) from Sikaiana. It was recorded by Mark Etua as part of linguistic research done by Peter Sharples among the Sikaiana. The transcription into the Sikaiana language was done by Priscilla Taulupo and the rough translation by Bill Donner (sorry for any errors).
Traditionally, Sikaiana people were master voyagers, capable of traveling hundreds of kilometers. This voyage was probably conducted in the 1920s by a trader for Lever Brothers in his dinghy when he was short of supplies. He had several Sikaiana people help, including the father of Mark Etua

Donner, Bill

Etua, Mark

Sharples, Pita

Taulupo, Priscilla

English

Research Commons Kutztown University

Kutztown University Research Commons at Kutztown University Sikaiana Oral Stories Sikaiana Traditions 1966 05 Holau, the Voyage of Mr. Boe Mark Etua Pita Sharples Priscilla Taulupo Bill Donner Follow this and additional works at: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/sikaiana_oralstories  Part of the Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Other Rhetoric and Composition Commons, Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Etua, Mark; Sharples, Pita; Taulupo, Priscilla; and Donner, Bill, "05 Holau, the Voyage of Mr. Boe" (1966). Sikaiana Oral Stories. 8. https://research.library.kutztown.edu/sikaiana_oralstories/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sikaiana Traditions at Research Commons at Kutztown University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sikaiana Oral Stories by an authorized administrator of Research Commons at Kutztown University. For more information, please contact czerny@kutztown.edu. This is the story of one of the very last long distance voyages (holau) done by a Sikaiana person, probably in the 1910s or 1920s. It was recorded by Mark Etua for Pita Sharples some time in the 1960s. Priscilla Taulupo wrote the story in the Sikaiana language and I (Bill Donner) provided a translation into English. Unlike traditional Sikaiana holau done in outrigger canoes  (vaka hai ama) this was undertaken in a white trader’s dinghy. I think it is an interesting story. imua. \ \ \ I \ i \· MISTA BOE T,mei anau ka tala-tala ina haitaina ni holau iho ki Sikaiana ki Tulagi Na rrale ona haitaina la Matiu Likilua rra tona taina a Tarras Toioteve, a Pita Lati rro tona taina a Jonson Lautaua, ka tamama hoki, tona rrale a Mista Boe. A Mr. Boe tana noho ana i Sikaiana ni rrao haeko. Ka tana hekau e hekau ki tume, e taui tume i Sikaina. Ka tamama laia e hekau kia Liva. Ite rrokoa la a Liva tona tapa henua eisi i Tulagi i Gela tona rrale te henua la a Gavutu. Ka tamama la nihano noho i Sikaiana, noho noho rrao hakati koia. Tela holau iho oi. Ka telatou me ni holau iho ia,. rraeko tamama la ninoho i Sikaiana oti tana kai, heai tana me ki miti-miti, heai rrana heme pela name ko tamama. Maeko tevaka nihe hano ki Sikaiana tokana ona ia siaoa. Ka tamama la a Mr. Boe ku kai koia kite pou-pou ate niu, ka rrate kai koia o Sikaiana. Pela ite haha, teika, kapulaka, te karratu, tekai koia ite rranu rrate me; te rranu, terroa, tepiki na kai koia pe, na kai koia 0 Sikaiana. Ka tamama la enoho hoki rrotona tapa rranaui, heai he rranaui la, te dingi. Ka noho noho oia tevaka ko kuhe hanake, haiatu ei kite haitaina la latou ki holau iho. Kana haitaina la hailaoi haeko koia, pe kia kilatou muli koia po evaisoa, poi na soavaka mua koia o Sikaiana. Kako tala-tala kite rreana, kite meana o Sikaiana. Hai alatou kai na kai ko kitau rrate latou holau iho. Tekai tenei ite puatolo, tekai ei tela ehe levaka ki popo vave. Eia kutae kite sehui rralua ite po, oiho oi, solo telatou vakala, hakatu telatou la tele iho oi. Tele tele ia kutae ki Matuavi rroe ei, rroe rroe kutahata, kake alatou niu, kupi telatou dingi la, haka sao kitua, hakatu telatou la kahe tele iho ai. Tele iho, tele iho telatou aha la. Ni kite itarra hoko tahi ni rrate, tarra rrate hoko tahi imua i Sikaiana ni rrate, ka imua ko, terratou tupu-tupu ate tarra rrate rratou etili itai. E nano tona huaitino, tuku kiloto tevaka haiarra, haka tahe ei. Ala tama etili koia pela eno haka tele ei kilalo, ka tele ei rrate tai. Ka ni tele iho ni kite ite tarrala, ona aha kuhia, kulaka ehitu tana rrate ana. Tela ni kite tokana ku tonu tela. Ka terratani rrahi haeko koia telatou tele iho ana la. Tele iho ai, hana iho, hana iho telatou aha la, tae kite ahi-ahi, a Mala ku sula. Ka ni taeiho ki Walande kupo, ka nihe rroe iki la. Hakatu muli telatou la teke ei. Tenei ka tele iho koia kite kapitol mua koia o Solorron a Tulagi, tapa henua hoko tahi, ka terrokoa nei ia kuheai te kapitol la, te kiona haka naniu ate kavarranu mua. Kako tele iho, tele iho oia katae iho ki Tulagi o kupo, tepo ko, kurre laia tevaka kuhano ki Sikaiana, tevaka la tona rrale a, o aloha haeko Pita, nau ku lanumea inau te rrale ate vakala. Kako tela ia kuhano ki Sikaiana, kahano o toiho ta.mama. la a Mr. Boe. Ka nitae atu ki Tulagi ite pola koia, itahata. la tahata ite hila aho. Ni taeatu,haiatu ei tama haka naniu o Liva la, tevaka ku hanatu ki Sikaiana, ki toiho ta.mama. la. Ka kime ko pehe, terneana kuoti ite hanaiho ki Tulagi. Ka hanatu tevaka taeatu ki Sikaiana, haiatu tama. o Sikaiana ki ta.mama. ote vaka nihano la, haiatu la a Mr. Boe ni holau. Ni holau iho ki kite rroana. Ka haiatu ei tealiki ote vaka la o aia nihe lave ei. Huli iho rnuli telatou vakala tele iho oi. Kani tele iho ko, tekau hai-taina la kunoho lai iuta i Gavutu. Ka tela temeana o Sikaiana ni holau iho, hehai tama. ke hakati ni holau iho rnuli, ka tena koia kote holau a Hakaino me tela ni rrate heiloa la·. ni taia i Mala na tamala a Saupo rra Hakaino ko tama. hoko tahi, a Siota ia eluwe ia tala-tala nei, te holau ote vakala. Ka tama tela a Mr. Boe, ni hanaiho tela ni noho i Tulagi telatou holau iho ana la, hakapitia kihe hano muli ki Sikaiana rraeko ni pena-pena tona tupu-tupu pela ki holau iho rrate kana haitaina la, ka kime la ku rrate noa ite rroana. Fu toku tama.na nei ki rrate sala na, naku he tupu ite aho nei a. ******************************** This is a rough translation in which Bill Donner tries to follow the flow of the writing in Sikaiana of Priscilla Taulupo. Sorry for any errors.  Here I will talk about the brothers who voyaged from Sikaiana to Tulagi in earlier timesi. The names of the brothers are Mathew Likilua and his brother Thomas Toioteve, Peter Lati with their brother Johnson Lautaua, and another person, his name is Mr. Boe. Mr. Boe stayed on Sikaiana for a long time. And his work was copra, he bought copra on Sikaiana. And that white person worked for Lever Brothers. At that time Levers had a small island at Tulagi on Gela, the name of that island was Gavutu. And that white man came to live on Sikaiana, he lived there for a very long time.  For that reason, he made his journey. And they made the journey because the white man lived so long on Sikaiana that his food was finished, he didn’t have anything to smoke, he didn’t have any of the things white men have. Because the boat (the steamship supplying him on Sikaiana) had not gone to Sikaiana for, I think, two years. So the white man ate only the fibers of coconut trees, with only food from Sikaiana. The swamp taro, fish, dry taro, coconut flesh, food of animals and other things, bird, chicken, pig, only the food of Sikaiana. The whiteman stayed with his small canoe, not really a canoe, a dinghy. He stayed and stayed but the Steamship never arrived, he said to those brothers, they are going to have to go on an ocean voyage (holau).  Now those brothers were very kind, they were close friends, like the special friends on Sikaiana in former times. They gathered their food that would be enough for their voyage. Food like taro pudding, the food that could not turn rotten fast. It reached 12 at night, they went, they dragged their boat there, and they set off to sail. They sailed to Matuavi (one of the islets at the other end of atoll), and slept. At dawn, they climbed some coconut trees, filled their dinghy, carried towards shore, set their sail and sailed. Sailed, sailed, for days. They saw a person who had died, a dead person from Sikaiana; in former times our custom on Sikaiana was to bury people at sea. His body was in an outrigger canoe, and set to drift with currents. Other people were buried at sea and sent to sink below, to go with the sea. When they saw that person, he had been-- how many days—over seven days since his death. They set straight the sail. And the wind was very strong during their sailing. They sailed on, went on, their day went by, evening Mala appeared (the largest island about 130 miles west of Sikaiana). They reached Walande at night, but they didn’t sleep there. They set up their sail, sail on. Then they sailed on to the former capital of the Solomon Islands at Tulagi, a small island, but it is not the capital at this present time, (it was) the head of the government in earlier times (before World War II).  Then they sailed, they reached Tulagi at night, there was a boat going to Sikaiana, the boat’s name was—sorry Pita (Sharples)—I forget the name of the boat. Well! The boat was going to Sikaiana, it was going to bring back the white man there, Mr. Boy. So they reached Tulagi that night, (the boat left for Sikaiana) in the morning before. The arrived, the manager of Levers said that the boat had gone to Sikaiana to take back the white man. What could they do? The people had already arrived at Tulagi. So the boat went to Sikaiana, the people of Sikaiana said to the whiteman on the boat that had come, they said that Mr. Boe had voyaged. He voyaged into the seas. And the captain of the boat said that he had not met (or passed) him. The boat turned around, sailed back. Well, it sailed back and the brothers were staying ashore at Gavutu. And so there, the people of Sikaiana voyaged, and no one else has voyaged since then (Etua is speaking in 1966 or 1967). There was the voyage of Hakaino’s group that died, don’t know if they were killed on Malaita, Saupo, Hakaino and another person, Siota knows about that story the voyage of that boat.  So Mr. Boe went to live at Tulagi, voyaged there, and he was kept back to not return to Sikaiana because he made the voyage with the brothers there, and could have died for nothing in the ocean. Whew! If my father (Likilua) had died for nothing there, I would not be alive today.  i The voyage was a holau—a long distance journey in an open outrigger or boat, which was the manner of travelling before steamships. 

05 Holau, the Voyage of Mr. Boe

https://research.library.kutztown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=sikaiana_oralstories

05 Holau, the Voyage of Mr. Boe

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