Maraufu - An Important Learning Process for Aorigi Boys

Maraufu: Makira-Ulawa’s Past Adolescence Grooming Process

James is a young Makira man who only reached standard six some years ago. Norman, his cousin didn’t complete his primary education. Andrew completed his primary school but had the luck of completing a Rural Training Centre training.

The same is also true for a lot of their peers. Today, they live in their village in Central Makira doing the same thing: alcohol, tobacco and or drug abuse.

Advices from their parents, village elders and parish priest fall on deaf years.

 They are now tired of talking. This, the elders reckon, is happening because of modern education. It is taking young children away from their customs and exposing them to introduced ideas.

When they finish schooling and go home, the young don’t know their customs and culture and therefore don’t care. The young instead live in the periphery of culture and the introduced culture and norms they learned in school.

This, according to Joseph Faerua of Santa Catalina Island, is also true for most school leavers of his island in east Makira.

In the olden days, he said, adolescent boys were required to go through a certain tradition called Maraufu.

This is a custom which helped young adolescent males to acquire the skills and norms of their society in order to become good citizens. This tradition was practised throughout Makira until Christianity arrived.

Mr Faerua added, it also used to be practised on Ulawa and Ugi Islands.

“But when Missionaries came in they regarded it as unchristian. Maraufu used to be a very important tradition because it acted like a bridge between adolescence and adulthood.

Faerua explained that before this ritual is performed, the community must fulfill several things. Firstly, they must build a custom house and carve a bonito canoe. These are the two most important things. Without them, the ritual could not happen.

The process starts when chiefs call a meeting to which all fathers are invited to talk about their young sons. Boys aged between 10 and 12 only would qualify to become maraufu.

“The chief would consult with men about the custom house. If the house was old and needed repairing, they would repair it. If they needed to build a new one, they would do it. Once these were completed, the chief would ask about the old bonito canoe. If there was a need for a new one, they would build it.

“When the canoe was completed, the young boys would go fishing. It was only the young boys, no one else. Once the young boys were chosen, they were not allowed to return to their families. They would stay in the specially built house – some way away from the main village – until they completed the rituals. Usually they would stay by themselves for nine months to a year.”

Meanwhile, he said, the fathers would convene and discuss about the things they should prepare for their sons. They would build special beds and then hold another meeting to decide on when the village would bring yams home. Once dates for collections were agreed on, they would ask the villagers to go and fetch them. The yams were carried home according to the ranks of the young boys. The head boy’s would be the first followed by his other peers’.

”As soon as all the yams were home, the men would work on decorating the specially built platform. The special platform – usually raised high above the ground - was where the boys were to be honored. Yams were, again, hung according to the ranks of the boys - on each one’s post, again marked according to their ranks. Each of the boys also had one pig tied to his post.”

He also added that before the decorations were made, the village would engage in making pudding and store them in big wooden bowls for the occasion.

“On the day of their adornment, the boys would be decorated with shell money, stuck custom combs into their hair, given a ‘maramaraitapa’(a basket full of all sorts of things, shell money and other valuables) to avoid the blood of bonito spilling onto their chests and clad in a tiny piece of loin cloth covering their genitals.

“Once all decorated, the maraufu were led by a chief walking in a style called ‘Watoparo’. This means he would put one leg forward for a few seconds with a certain hum then another step and hum all the way to the ladder of the raised platform.

“Once they reach the ‘Tara ano’ or the ladder they would climb up, (The platform was usually covered with betel nuts, leaves, cigarettes - all sorts of good things) one man would already be standing there waiting for them. Once the boys get up and line up next to their allotted posts, the boys would grab hold of the betel nuts, leaves and cigarettes and throw them down to the waiting crowd below. (You can imagine how the crowds react in trying to grab whatever they want at that moment. The strong ones usually were the lucky ones. Some old men and women fell down in the milieu).

“However, the maraufu would proceed to the centre of the platform and then descended the ladder slowly. And waiting on the ladder would be the aunt of the head maraufu. As soon as the leader, who was always ahead of the others, came down and reached her he must kiss one of her nipples – this was the tradition – a sign that the maraufu had come home.

After that, said Faerua, the boys would each go to their houses and removed all the decorations on their bodies before following the others to share the food with the rest of the community.

“The puddings they prepare for the maraufu are very special. Once they finish eating, their fathers would kill the allotted pigs for a big feast the following day.

“In the night following their adornment, the maraufu still kept their maramaraitapa (a basket full of all sorts of things, shell money and other valuables). At night the boys’ aunties would go and look for any girls of their choice – only girls were allowed to tear the maramaraitapa, not anyone else. After they finish tearing the woven baskets, the girls would go and hang the baskets near the women’s latrine or maamaru.”

The next day a big feast should take place. This would be when every house killed a pig and the pudding is divided up equally for the entire village to celebrate. On such occasions so many pigs would be killed.

The maraufu celebration used to be popular in the past to prepare young boys for manhood, said Faerua.

“I was a maraufu myself during my younger days before I went to school. Now I am an old man,” he added and smiled.

Mr Faerua stressed that this tradition helped young men of the community to know how to conduct themselves in society. How to build houses, how to fish as well as the customs associated with fishing, know who their clans are and understand the general norms of their society.

Today, sadly, he added, these qualities are vanishing because young Solomon Islanders learn introduced qualities so when they return to the village they are lost.  When they follow the introduced ideas, which are for the most part, do not exist in the village they are confused. And when they are confused, they end up in all sorts of unwanted behaviors - behaviors which are not acceptable in the eyes of the community leaders and members.

Mr Faerua, a former radiologist at the Central Hospital, is now retired and is living on Santa Catalina. A few years ago, he was chosen to be a chief of his tribe.

After he finished his tale, Mr Faerua sighed, looked down at table he was sitting next to and said unless the country looks back at its past and teaches it to future Solomon Islanders there may not be any hope of turning the current tide back.

But in 2013 and 2014 Mr Faerua was the leading figure in reviving this important tradition through a film called The Test. In this movie, written and directed by locals but filmed by a renowned French photographer, Laurent, Mr Faerua’s grandson, Ernest Faerua, the lead actor led a group of young boys in the revival. So today, this lost tradition is now restored and has become an additional attraction for the people of Santa Catalina or Aorigi as it’s known locally.