Dadagaliwabe , The Great God- Progenitor of Hela people

There are many different exotic culture with in Papua New Guinea and it's a land of traditional people
living a subsistence lifestyle and it's own distinct beliefs and customs. Papua New Guinea is culturally
fascinating. This is a place of living and flourishing traditions where local people dramatic initiation rites
and elaborate customs for singings and huge annual festivals. Therefore, in this particular descriptive
essay,much is talked about God (Datagaliwabe) in Hela vernacular throughout Hela, nearby provinces
and even the entirety of Papua New Guinea.

Let me take you to Datagaliwabe. The Huli have a mixture of myths and legends that explain the origins
of the gods, clan founders, the creation of all living things and other vital components of Huli life.

The Huli believe that in the beginning, there was land and the deities. The deities, such as sun and
moon, the Ni and Hana, live in the sky.

The Huli High God, Datagaliwabe, was the original Supreme Spirit to come from the sky who created the
land and other deities. Datagaliwabe was replaced by Honabi wali, the demiurge from whom all life
flowed. Her children, Ni and Hana, are the focus of many Huli fertility rites.

The first goddess to inhabit the land was Honabe wali. She was seduced by Timbu, the male deity, and
gave birth to five gods, Korimogo, Heyolabe, Piandela, Ni and Hela, and one goddess, Hana.

Many Huli regard all these deities as very powerful beings, but deity Heyolabe as the most dangerously
evil of them all.

After a time, she gave birth to eight other deities, the first bird, possum and pig, hills, trees, bows and
arrows, and fire and water.

She is the grandmother goddess of the Huli people and surrounding cultures, the Obene, Duna, Duguba
and Hewa peoples.

Otherwise, they all speak different languages, have their own spirits and their own styles of worship.
The deity Hela married an unknown woman who bore him four sons, Obene, Huli, Duna and Duguba.
They had a fight which resulted in Obene fleeing to live in the Magarima area, Duna to Lake Kopiago and
Duguba to Mount Bosavi, while Huli remained in the Tagari river basin.

They were the first human beings and each founded the cultural group that is known to the Huli by
those same names.

The Huli calm these deities and seek their assistance through oblation of pigs, red paints, pig fat, cowrie
and kina shells, crops and special plant leaves.

Some deities like Ni and Korimogo consume the blood and aroma of prepared pigs while the other
deities delight in pig fat offerings which are rubbed on sacred stones. Datagaliwabe and Heyalobe
cannot be propitiated by any ritual means, although the former is placated by proper moral conduct.

The deity Heyalobe was regarded as dama, the Satan. He control the forces of nature and would deceive
the Huli people to do evil things.

If Huli people did not follow Heyalobe’s instructions, he would attack them directly causing sickness,
accident or death or indirectly through witches, corpses, stones, sticks or other ritual objects that are
imbued with their presence.

If they pleased Heyalobe, he would help them in their endeavors. To avoid attack, the Huli people would
placate and win the favour of Heyalobe by tricking him to protect themselves.

Long ago, in order to confuse the deities, Huli men would traverse deep forests and climb mountain
peaks speaking a derivative of the Huli language called Tayanda Bi. They also tricked the Heyalobe by
constructing symbolic gates to block paths as they walked through the forest.

The Datagaliwabe is a unique supreme being, who, unlike Ni and Hana, is not referred to as dama but
only by name. He is someone who the Huli people never play around with. They feel his presence more
powerfully than other deities.
He is a giant High God, who looks down from the sky to punish lying, stealing, adultery, incest, murder of
related kin and disregard of ritual taboos. Huli say if you do something evil Datagaliwabe will be
watching you.

Datagaliwabe was known to the Huli as a bringer of punishment upon those who infringed kinship laws.
The only way to please him is proper moral behavior. He would never be placated by pigs as sacrifices
and doesn’t accept prayers, dances or other rituals.

The Datagaliwabe looks favorably upon those who obey kinship rules and helps them in their daily
affairs. He speaks directly to whoever pleases him in the form of dreams, visions, prophecies and special
insights.

He also speaks to Huli needs in term of the good life: salvation and power for living. Only the righteous
and holy people are taken to dahulianda, the heaven.

The Pari clan in South Koroba (a home to the descendant of the sun god, the Ni), regard the place as
dahulianda dogo, the bridge to heaven. The Datagaliwabe uses that place for his holy people to cross to
heaven.

In the legend of Ira Hari, there is a sacred tree through which all of the earth’s waters pass into the
heavens only to fall again as rain.

Men tried to build a bridge to heaven on this tree using rope and timber but were unsuccessful. Their
language was confused as they worked on the bridge resulting in the disruption of their plans to reach
the house of the deities and this was the creation of various other languages.

The Datagaliwabe showed the Huli people dreams and visions of aircraft, truck and also the return of
Tahonane, the Hulis’ long lost white brother.

The first Huli man Tagonimabe has two sons, Tahonane born white and Tamindini born black. Tahonane
was nursed by a great god, grew quickly and left the Huli area never to die. Tamindini nursed at his
mother’s breast, and became the father of all the Huli people through his son, Tiliali.
The first white men the Huli people encountered were Jack Hides and Peter O’Malley. They looked
queerly at the two explorers and whispered excitedly among themselves about their long lost white
brother who had returned.

One of the prophecies that has come to pass is Gigira Laitebo legend called Kwai Topo. In this legend,
the wise men of Hela spoke many generations ago that their land possessed the Gigira Laitebo or
everlasting fire and that one day this would so shine that the faraway lands would be attracted by it and
they would come to their doorstep.

Today the people of Hela are seeing the men with the orange legs from faraway lands trying to take the
fire from them.

The Datagaliwabe transformed himself into the sun god, the Ni, resulting in a combination of the
supreme-being with the sun god to form one supreme-being, the Ni.

Ni is a creator god who makes the fertility of the earth and increases the abundance of life for his
children, Ni honowini. One of the Ni honowini who makes the fertility of the earth is the famous huli
legend of Baya Baya.

He was regarded as Jesus who stayed among the Huli people. Prophecy states that the descendant from
Ni honowini would one day will come and light up the caves and tunnels of Hela Province. The Huli
ancestors said that when that day came, it would be the sign of the last days.

Many Huli believe that Bible stories are paralleled in Huli legend, to the extent that some became
convinced that their ancestors had somehow received the biblical message before even the missionaries
came, which resulted in many questions about Church history.

Datagaliwabe is still equated with God or Yahweh by many Huli Christians today.