"Hiʻiakaikapoliopele" 12" x 18" Canvas Print

Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, youngest, most courageous, and favorite sister of Pele, the famous Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire. Hiʻiaka is the goddess of hula dancers, medicine, healing, sorcery, and chant. For this piece, I imagined Hiʻiaka in her quest to fetch Lohiʻau for Pele. Before embarking on this dangerous journey, she received gifts from Pele to help her overcome any obstacles in her way. One of the three gifts she received was Paʻu uila (lightning skirt), a magical kapa (bark cloth) skirt that contained lightning within its folds. Hiʻiaka uses this skirt to battle and defeat moʻo (lizard dieties) that aim to stop her journey. The existence of this skirt is an important indicator of the reverence and value of women in Hawaiian culture, as it is specifically a female garment. Here, Hiʻiaka is depicted wearing a lei poʻo (head lei) of ʻōhiʻa lehua and a lei puahala received on her journey. She enters battle, removing her skirt as her weapon, as lightning flashes from the heav