Meet the Maui Characters

Punia

Like Maui, Punia is another kolohe character from our Hawaiian legends, and we LOVE our kolohe characters. We love them because they break all the rules, they step out of their comfort zone, and they tell us its okay. It’s okay to break the rules because sometimes the rules need to be broken. And Punia teaches us this in his mo‘olelo. He has the courage to do something no one else in his community will do or is scared to do and this serves, not just his family, but his community.

In this ka‘ao, Punia’s father has just died and Punia is left with the realization that if he and his mother want more than just sweet potatoes to eat, he will have to get it himself. He will have to be the one to ‘auamo that kuleana or take up that responsibility. Now, sweet potatoes aren’t bad, but there is a difference between eating sweet potatoes and surviving off them and Punia didn’t want to just survive off of sweet potatoes and more importantly he didn’t want his mother to survive off just sweet potatoes.

So Punia heads down to this cave filled with lobsters, yummy, delicious and meaty lobsters, but there are 12 nasty sharks guarding it. Punia doesn’t even flinch at the sharks though. He has a plan. He tricks these vicious sharks by throwing a stone into the water. The stone is his decoy. When all the sharks gather around the stone, thinking its he who jumped in, he sneaks into the cave and pulls out two lobsters for he and his mother.

And, his kolohe(ness) doesn’t end there, after he gets out of the water with the lobsters, he tells the big, bad boss shark that it was really one of HIS sharks that helped him. That one of HIS sharks is a traitor and Punia points him out. Of course, this shark is immediately killed.

Punia continues to call out these “traitors” until all of the sharks are dead, except the big, bad boss shark. He eventually tricks the boss shark into beaching himself and he is stabbed to death.

And by doing this, killing off all these sharks, what does Punia provide for his mother and the wider community of Kōhala — which is where he is from? An unguarded, shark-exterminated cave that they can now gather lobsters from. A meat source that his community now has free access to. What a gift to leave his mother and community.

Mauiakamalo

Who can do that other than Maui?  

BUT most people don’t know him as Mauiakamalo (Maui-of-the-loincloth), the Mauiakamalo that was born to the powerful water-pulling deity Hina, the Mauiakamalo that was magically born from, you guessed it, a malo (loincloth), that Mauiakamalo that had 10 other just as impossible-but-possible feats. 

What makes Mauiakamalo’s birth astonishing is that he was conceived through his mother girding a loincloth and passing out on the sand. Yes, you heard that right! Hina goes down to the seashore to pick limu (seaweed), sees a red loincloth, puts it on and BAM, she’s pregnant. Talk about an immaculate conception! This mysterious birth not only sets up his life to one of marvelous feats, but also the constant responsibility to defy the impossible and prove himself. 

In one of his other feats, he steals from two of the most powerful male deities and even goes so far as to take an anu‘u (oracle tower) from a heiau (temple), proving to the society that some of the akua and rules they hold oh-so-sacred, maybe isn’t so much and they need to loosen up a bit. He also does it in a very playful way, helping the society to swallow it better. Another feat happens at about the age of six. Where Maui battles his two full-grown Uncles who have come to kill him out of lineage pollution (supposedly), but mostly out of jealousy. Māui overcomes his Uncles and has nothing but a red scar on his forehead. 

Yes, very Harry Potter of him. 

But can you imagine? Six. years. Old. At six years old, he has to defend himself and his mother against two ginormous men. I mean, what were you doing at six years old because I can tell you that I was not taking down two warrior-built men with a bow and arrow and some string. I was hiding behind my mother because I didn’t want to meet my new teacher and classmates at a new school. 

In these feats that hardly anyone knows of so you should pay attention to this space and put your name on our email list, Maui has the courage and the grit to defy his society and his Uncles face-to-face. He has courage and the confidence to be his radical self. 

Like we all want to be. Our radical selves. 

Hina

she tells him where to find it, and when he goes to slow the sun, she gives him the cords that he’ll need to lasso him. Without her prompting and rigid guidance, Maui would seriously be up shet creek. 

Don’t get me wrong, each of them plays an integral role in the success of each challenge. They both need the other. Maui provides the strength, the agility, the grit and the playfulness to get these tasks done while Hina produces the gadgets, the maps and the game plan to succeed. She is the often-overlooked-but-greatly-needed preparation process.  

In these Maui Mo‘olelo, her urgings are usually presented in the form of need, which is funny because how else are you supposed to get your child to do anything. Your child sees that you need something so they go and get it for you. Hina needs fire so they can eat cooked food and she needs the sun to slow so that her kapa can dry. Being the caring son that he is, Maui makes these needs his own and takes up the responsibility to accomplish them. It is a perfect mother/son relationship. 

Even in her elemental form, she produces the same support. In her elemental form, Hina is the moon. She governs the water cycles and the gravitational pull of water in the oceans, in plants and in humans. If look at Hina and Maui’s relationship from her elemental form, we can see that she is still his instigator. Hina is the one that urges and guides Maui to reach his utmost potential. To be the best, badd-est and most radical Maui he can be. 

We all need a Hina in our lives. 

The Uncles - Kia‘iloa and Kia‘iakapoko

These are Maui's Uncles, his mother's brothers. They arrive at Maui’s cave home, uninvited and very hostile, prepared to sweep Hina to the side and kill Maui. They are very angry at Hina for tarnishing her illustrious bloodline with her man Akalana for this child Maui, and they want to rid the blemish from the family.

The Rat