This is an NFSA Digital Learning resource. See all Digital Learning websites.
Malo
More Information

Wilfred:
We're going to perform one of our main dance. It's a shark dance.

It's about our former god, Malo Bomai. He came to Murray Island shores here, three hundred years ago and he settled down and made eight tribes on Murray Island here where we still keep our traditional tribes, eight tribes.

This dance that we do here is one of the shark clan. We're going to perform it for the judges and the lawyers here, today.


Narrator:
Malo, a Murray Island god, is believed to have arrived on Mer in the form of an octopus, to unite the island's eight clans, which previously worshipped different gods.

Islanders say that Malo gave them laws and religious leaders to govern their lives. They claim that land ownership and cultivation were regulated by Malo's laws and that his teachings continue to influence their relationship to the land. It's this claim which has made Malo worship a central issue in the Murray Island case.

Queensland's lawyers argue that no such system of land law or government can be proved, and that Malo worship ceased to exist when the London Missionary Society converted islanders to Christianity at the end of the nineteenth century.
Malo Dance
Topic
Sep, 19, 1995
ceremony, dancing, Las, Mabo, Benny, Mabo, Edward Koiki, Mabo family, Mabo, Maiga, Malo dance, Malo's laws, Mer, Meriam culture, Murray Island, reburial, sacred
Malo Dance 1967
Video
1967
dancing, Land Bilong Islanders, Las, Malo, Malo dance, Malo's laws, Meriam culture, sacred
The Malo-Bomai myth
Text
 
Las, Malo dance, Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, Meriam culture, Meriam history, Papua New Guinea, sacred, Stars of Tagai, Torres Strait
Malo's Laws
Topic
 
Christianity, clans, Malo, Malo's laws, Meriam culture, religion
Malo Ceremonial Dance 1898
Video
1898
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, ceremony, Haddon, A.C., Land Bilong Islanders, Las, Malo dance, Malo's laws, Meriam culture
Malo ceremonial dance as drawn by A.C.Haddon
Image
1898
ceremony, Haddon, A.C., Malo's laws, Meriam culture, songs
Star-headed Malo clubs
Image and Text
 
Las, Malo, Malo dance, songs
A Sacred Landscape
Topic
 
aboriginal property ownership, anthropology, Australia, clans, dispossession, kinship, land ownership, religion, sacred
The Laws Of Malo
Topic
 
indigenous law, Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, Meriam culture, Meriam history, Murray Island, religion, sacred, sacred
Malo's Law
Topic
 
Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, Meriam culture, Meriam history, Murray Island, religion, sacred
Las
Topic
 
Las, Las, Mabo, Edward Koiki, Malo, Mer, Meriam culture, Meriam history, Murray Island, Piadaram, Zogo le
Performance, Art & The Sacred
Topic
 
Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, Mer, Murray Island, religion, sacred
Sacred Order
Topic
 
Las, Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, Meriam culture, religion, sacred
The Eight Clans
Topic
 
clans, Mer, Meriam culture, Murray Island
Malo-Bomai
Topic
 
aboriginal law, Las, Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, religion, sacred
The Story Of Malo
Topic
 
Malo, Malo's laws, Malo-Bomai, Mer, Meriam culture, Meriam culture, religion, religion