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Overview

In Turner’s account, Pava begins as a man living on southern Upolu who came from the group’s eastern end. While the parents work away from home, their children’s cooking smoke attracts Tangaloa from heaven. Pava returns to receive the visitor. A child overturns the prepared drink; Tangaloa kills and then restores the child. Pava leaves in anger, stepping onto a taro leaf and travelling to Fiji. He later returns with a son of Fiji’s king and receives a place among the gods after his death.

The taro leaf becomes his emblem, with leaf caps distinguishing his followers in warfare. Turner also records a rainbow representation interpreted through its position over the village or farther inland. Another story relocates the child’s death and makes Pava flee repeatedly from Tangaloa. At each new stopping place he sees the heavenly being’s formidable eye above him, until he reaches the district where it is no longer visible. The safe end of the pursuit and the leaf voyage belong to different tellings rather than one continuous itinerary.

Taro-leaf voyageReturn with Fijian royal companionPosthumous divine statusTaro-leaf emblemRainbow signPursuing eye in variant
01

Origins & earliest records

George Turner, Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before, chapter IV, entry 20; first printed London 1884, selected University of the South Pacific 1984 reprint transcription.

02

Records & interpretation

Located historical missionary collector’s account preserves a specific named representation or narrative; attributed interpretations remain identified as such.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Samoa, chapter IV, entry 20

    George Turner, missionary collector · 1884; selected reprint 1984

    Full selected numbered account; historic spelling and source-specific variants retained.

Family & connections

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References

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  1. Primary historical collected narrativeTurner: Samoa, chapter IVResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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