A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Turner records a contest in which the Fijian Banian tree has defeated all the other trees of Fiji. News reaches Samoa, prompting Tatangia and another tree to travel in two canoes to challenge it. The collector supplies the historical botanical name acacia laurifolia for Tatangia. Once ashore, the visitors ask for the undefeated tree, which speaks and identifies itself. Tatangia challenges it, and the Banian accepts.

During the fight, Tatangia avoids successive falling branches and finally the falling trunk. The defeated Banian buries its eyes in the earth and acknowledges its loss. No return journey or subsequent transformation is supplied. Turner interprets the encounter as a figurative account of human warfare, pointing to tree names used for towns and districts. He also reports that his contemporaries resisted that interpretation. The speaking trees and their actions belong to the recorded narrative; the proposed identification with human combatants belongs to the collector’s commentary.

Speaking tree championsCanoe journeyEvasion of falling branchesDefeated tree’s buried eyesCollector’s figurative interpretation
01

Origins & earliest records

George Turner, Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before, chapter XIX, account 3. First printed London, 1884; hosted text transcribes the University of the South Pacific 1984 reprint.

02

Records & interpretation

A located nineteenth-century missionary collection records this particular narrative. Turner’s interpretations are distinguished from the narrated events.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Samoa, chapter XIX, account 3

    George Turner, missionary collector · 1884; reprint 1984

    Complete selected account, retaining the collector’s spellings and its narrative outcome.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary historical collected narrativeTurner: Samoa, chapter XIX, account 3Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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