Vaiola Malama (Kerisome) Head, usually known as Malama among her people, was born on Niue Island around 1890. She was adopted by Makaea Kerisome and his wife, Vihimanogi, when she was very young.
Makaea took his family to Samoa where he served as a teacher for the London Missionary Society from 1895 to 1901. After their return to Niue, Malama, at only 12 years old, was the subject of an arranged marriage, according to custom, with a man named Pauaki, who eventually passed away from leprosy.
Malama was introduced to the Seventh-day Adventist Church through missionaries Joseph and Julia Steed in 1908. This incurred some persecution from her family, and so believing it was beneficial to transfer Malama, the Steeds arranged for her to go to Tonga and spend time with Adventist teacher Ella Boyd. This arrangement proved mutually beneficial. Malama provided company and some protection to an isolated young teacher far from her homeland while Ella continued Malama’s education and became a role model for her. At the end of 1908 Ella and Malama sailed together for Australia.
In Australia, while Ella was appointed to the Avondale School for Christian Workers, Malama enrolled as a student and assisted with translation work. Upon the Steeds’ return from Samoa, Malama also assisted Joseph Steed in printing literature in the Samoan and Niuan languages. Her work paid for part of her tuition; the rest was covered by donations from Seventh-day Adventist youth in Queensland.
Early in 1914 Malama returned to Niue to assist Ephraim and Agnes Giblett in mission work. She was to sail to Auckland, meet the Giblett family there, and continue with them to Niue. However, on arrival in Auckland all plans were altered. One of the Gibletts’ children became critically ill, and Malama was reassigned to assist Reginald and Emily Piper in pioneer evangelism among the Māori, mainly in the Tauranga area. Malama’s winsome nature helped break down a lot of prejudice, and she stayed there for approximately 12 months before returning to Niue.
In 1915 Malama started a self-supporting elementary school in Alofi, Niue. She was granted a missionary licence but it is unknown whether she received any payment for her work. The following year Septimus and Edith Carr came to establish a mission base. Septimus Carr built a chapel in which Malama conducted her school, and later, a sewing class for older girls. By 1928, the school had morphed into a Sabbath school class of about 70 children. Malama also held a youth class on Sundays. By that stage she was teaching classes in a government school throughout the week and translating reading primers for her pupils. There wasn’t a day when she wasn’t teaching.
Around 1923 Malama married a local trader named Alan Head and they adopted two girls, Ida and Edith.
Malama’s Sabbath school grew to well over 100 children. She possessed a sweet singing voice and led the children in her translations of English hymns and tunes. Church members in Australasia regularly sent her supplies, including memory verse cards and picture rolls. A pedal organ was also donated from Australia in response to her request. Any tithe, offerings and mission appeal funds she collected were dutifully forwarded to Church headquarters.
In 1953 Malama sailed to Fiji to be part of a delegation to meet the royal visitors, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. In 1958 her services to education on Niue were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list with a Member of the British Empire Award. Before Malama passed away on June 13, 1963, she donated a piece of land on which she supervised the building of a home for a resident Adventist missionary. Just three weeks before her death, she had the satisfaction of meeting the incoming missionary.
Milton Hook, adapted from ESDA.
