Biographical entry: Marau, Clement (c. 1855 - 1920)
- Born
- c. 1855
- Died
- 1920
Details
Born about 1855 on Merelava Island in the Banks Group of Vanuatu, Clement Marau was the youngest son of Qoqoe, a chief. In 1869, Marau, like two of his brothers before him, went to the Melanesia Mission School on Norfolk Island and was baptised and confirmed in 1875. He travelled to Ulawa with Walter Waaro from that island in 1877 to begin the first school, initially for only three months. Marau returned to Ulawa in 1878 for another year. He battled very difficult conditions and after three years little progress had been made. When he wanted to marry Susie, a local woman, her family requested an exorbitant £50 for the bridewealth payment. He learned to carve shell inlayed bowls and sold them to raise the money, and they married in 1883.
Marau became a deacon in 1890 and a priest in 1903, by which time four hundred Ulawans had been baptised. He became very influential, and supervised the building of a beautiful church from sawn coral rock, which still stands and was considered the most substantial building in the Protectorate until the Catholics built their stone church at Visale on Guadalcanal in 1909. Unfortunately, Marau was suspended for some years for infidelity and returned to Merelav, but he was later restored to the Mission and returned to Ulawa. In 1918, his son Martin Marau (q.v.) was put in charge of the Ulawa church, a position he held for twenty-four years. Clement Marau lived quietly nearby at Su'u Taluhia until his death in 1920. (Fox 1958, 163, 166; Marau 1906; SCL 15 Dec. 1898, 8, May 1904, 21-25)
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Fox, Charles E., Lord of the Southern Isles: Being the Story of the Anglican Mission in Melanesia, 1849-1949, Mowbray, London, 1958. Details
- Marau, Clement, Story of a Melanesian Deacon: Clement Marau, written by himself, Translator: R.H. Codrington, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and E.S. Gorham, London and New York, 1906. Details
Reports
- Southern Cross Log (SCL). Details
Images
- Title
- Rev. Clement Marau and John Mansvute, Florida (Nggela) Islands (Solomon Islands
- Type
- Image
- Date
- 1906
- Source
- Anglican Church of Melanesia
- Title
- Rev. Clement Marau, ¾ Standing, Priest of Ulawa Island (Solomon Islands)
- Type
- Image
- Date
- 1906
- Source
- Anglican Church of Melanesia
.png)
- Title
- Rev. Clement Marau, ¾ Standing, Priest of Ulawa Island (Solomon Islands)
- Type
- Image
- Date
- 1906
- Source
- Anglican Church of Melanesia