Pele and Hi’iakaikapoliopele Visit La’au

Last month on one of their weekly visits to La'au, the Ritte family found a beautiful and large bloom of the rare plant Pa'uohi'iaka (the skirt of Hi'iaka) near their protest hale.

By Walter Ritte

Hi'iakaikapoliopele is the famous sister of Pele, who is the fire goddess of our volcanoes.

My mother, who has since died, was given this sacred name, Hi'iakaikapoliopele. We called her Hi'iaka. No one in the family thus far has shown to have the mana to pass on this sacred name on to the next generation.

Because of our mother, when this new book "The Epic Tales of Hi'iakaikapoliopele" came out, we read it, and it is a great book.

What really got our attention were the travels of Pele and Hi'iaka to La'au Molokai. The stories give us new information and insight about La'au, our history, islands, and people.

I knew I had to share this information, when last month on one of our weekly visits to La'au, we found a beautiful and large bloom of the rare plant Pa'uohi'iaka (the skirt of Hi'iaka) near our protest hale.

In the book, Hi'iaka wore a skirt of pala'a fern, and the name of the skirt was Pa'uohi'iaka, the same name of the plant now growing in our camp site at La'au. The skirt had great mana or power, and played a major role in the success of Hi'iaka in her journeys through out the Islands.

This is the backdrop in which we would like to present the stories of Pele and Hi'iaka and their journeys to La'au Molokai. We will present the stories in the next edition of the Molokai Dispatch.