A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Hina-ulu-ohia is the boat-builders’ ancestral goddess in Westervelt’s “Lau-ka-ieie.” She rescues a newborn cast into the sea in moss and appears to Pokahi in a dream as a woman covered with koa leaves. At the river mouth she becomes a flowering ʻōhiʻa tree visited by red ʻiʻiwi birds; tree and flowers sink from view as the birds depart.

With Kū she later arrives in human form carrying Lau-ka-ieie, whom they give to the childless household. Hina also restores Hiilawe after his death, giving him the continuing waterfall manifestation. The ending places her permanently in an ʻōhiʻa-tree body in Hawaiʻi’s volcanic forests, under the spelling Hina-ula-ohia. These are this narrative’s linked manifestations, rather than a claim that every figure named Hina is interchangeable.

Tree-bodied ancestral guardianNamed island and family relationships
01

Origins & earliest records

William Drake Westervelt, collected and translated account in Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Boston: Geo. H. Ellis; London: Constable, 1915). Individual narrator and earlier manuscript not identified in this chapter.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected chapter read. Colonial explanatory judgments are not adopted as descriptions of contemporary Hawaiian belief.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Legends of Gods and Ghosts, Chapter VI, pp. 36–48

    William Drake Westervelt, collector and translator · 1915

    Selected complete chapter; source spelling retained alongside Hawaiian place names.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary collected narrativeLegends of Gods and Ghosts, Chapter VI, pp. 36–48Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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