The story of Marouna is one of the most important accounts of an historic rescue of the people of Aitutaki. Born in Rarotonga Marouna was Aitutaki on his mother side, who was a princess from Aitutaki and had been sent to the large island by her father to marry a man of equal or high rank.

Many years after the princess had settled in Rarotonga, Aitutaki was invaded by foreign warriors referred to as the ‘Aitu’. All chiefly bloodlines (Ariki) were under threat and the local population subdued.

Marouna’s grandfather Meava-kura Ariki who was a descendant of the great navigator and ancestor Ruatapu, sent messengers to Rarotonga to seek his daughters’ children to raise a warparty and remove the ‘Aitu’ off the island. The messengers found there was only a single grandson, young but fearless.

Marouna was advised to go straight to his grandfathers aid, however not long after his vaka departed Rarotonga, Marouna changed course and set out to find brave warriors from other islands in the southern Cook group.

After gaining the aid of Taratoa of Atiu, Taratekui from Miti’aro, and Taratekurapa from Mauke, Marouna’s vaka, the Matakoviriviri was caught in a storm for 3 days before reaching the island of Mangaia.

In this paint Marouna sails towards Mangaia to seek the help of warriors Ue and the Nuie warrior Kavau who was living there at the time.

Materials: Stretched Canvas, Oil paint, varnish.
Size: 30x 15
Date: 2021