The Waitini tribe spans the region from the Lagaip up onto the high country of the Sirunki plateau. Its origins are closely associated with the Tia and Lyaini, which are brother tribes settled in the Sirunki area and Ambum valley. Its origin myth reaffirms this association yet gives Waitini the status of an independent tribe:
A long time ago, Tia took the Lyei bush track to the forest to hunt possums. While he was hunting, he came upon a rock-shelter (in the area between Waneposa and Sirunki). There he found a nest with an egg in it. It was a very large egg lying still in a nest of feathers. He looked over the nest and its surroundings very carefully and went home, pondering over how he would come back that night and kill the cassowary while it was sitting on its egg.
When Tia came home that evening, his wife was in the women’s house. He sat in the house with her for a while until she fell asleep. Then he left the house and made his way through the forest to the rock-shelter. He arrived, hoping to find and kill the cassowary, and was very surprised by what he saw before him. Instead of the egg, a very handsome child was lying in the nest. It was crying and trying to stand up. Tia was so surprised and confused that he just stood there trying to make sense of what he saw. He finally picked up the child, cuddled it in his arms and went home. His wife had another child of the same age but was willing to adopt a second child. The mother looked after the two children. They named the baby Waitini, and he was the founder of the Waitini tribe. Since Waitini was found in the rock-shelter, the descendants of Tia and Waitini live together as if they shared a common origin, but in fact they had separate origins as explained in this story.
(Saula Kau of the Waitini Kainda clan, Kanalipa, Sirunki)
This myth, which marks the beginning of Waitini oral history, gives a basis for the close association of Waitini and Tia, but also makes their separate origins clear. It might be mentioned that we were told one other version of the Waitini origin myth by Sapuakali Tamba of Waitini, which departs from the usual theme of the Waitini origin myth.
This is a very unusual myth of a female hunter in the Waneposa area who meets a man from the Maengo clan at Waiya in the lower Lagaip, who was on his way east. She hunted cassowaries but did not know that their meat could be eaten and so just used their bones for firewood. He showed her how to prepare cassowary meat, and she liked the taste. They stayed together and hunted cassowaries. One day when they had killed all the cassowaries nearby, the woman went into the bush and found the baby Waitini in a cassowary nest. She raised him as her son, and she founded the Waitini tribe. Sapuakali who told us this story was himself not quite clear on the role of the Maengo man, but perhaps it is the myth for a segment of the Maengo clan that joined Waitini in the past and not the Waitini origin myth. (Note, however, that both traditions are based on hunting and gathering traditions and mention strong influence from the west.)
Waitini married three wives, one from Mulapini Liukiki, another from Kunalini, and a third from the north side of the Lagaip. Each bore two sons. The sons of the Kunalini woman, Itokone and Koane, dispersed while the others remained in the Lagaip and Sirunki areas. Itokone fought with his brother Koane over a garden and firewood. Not wishing to remain in the tense situation, Itokone and his people left for Itokone’s wife’s place near Yapuma in Kandep where today they form a large clan. Koane is said to have moved to the upper Ambum valley after being tricked by his relatives out of getting a share of cassowary meat. He and a friend left for the Lepa near Londol in the upper Ambum where he heard that one could kill bundles of possum every time you went hunting and always eat until you were full. There they lived amongst Lyaini and Tupini clans.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Waitini clans and places
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Pipapa | Tulitepa and | Mamale and |
| Kanalipa | Sirunki | |
| Kainda | Potea and Kanalipa | Mamale and |
| Kanalipa | Sirunki | |
| Awatete | Waneposa | Mamale |
| Alapai | Aiaka | Mamale |
| Itokone | Yaka | Yapuma (Kandepe) |
| Koane | Leapa and | Leapa (Londol) and |
| Tambitanes | Tambitanes |