Pele Moves to Hawai‘i

retold here by Parker

Adapted from"Pele Moves to Hawai‘i" from Tales of the Menehune by Mary Kawena Pūku‘i

One day in far away Tahiti lived Pele and her family. Every day Pele and her sister, Nāmaka, goddess of sea, quarreled with each other day after day.Finally, a day came and Pele's brother, the shark god of the sea, prepared a Koa canoe for Pele and her family to sail across the sea to the beautiful Hawaiian islands.

They reached the island we know as Kaua‘i. Pele hiked upland and started to dig a hole with her sacred digging stick. Nāmaka saw lava bursting in the air and went on the attack. Pele and her family fought Nāmaka hard but were defeated. The hill is now known as Pu‘u ‘o Pele.
Pele and her family then settled on the island of O‘ahu where Pele started digging again and Nāmaka flooded the hole with salt water and fire was destroyed. Pele then moved to Lē‘ahi and dug a fine crater but was again defeated with water. We know this hill as Diamond Head.
Pele continuously tried this on Moloka’i and west Maui, but the salt water flowed and the fire was defeated.

High up on Haleakalā, Nāmaka seen smoke up in the sky and rushed to the attack. This time Pele felt stronger and more confident and fought single-handed. Finally Pele was killed and Nāmaka left Pele for her family to moan over.
Moments later in the smoke on top of Maunaloa Nāmaka saw a figure of Pele and thought, I can never kill Pele again because she is now a goddess.