Hina

How to recognise Hina

1. Full moonA large, pale full moon, because Hawaiian accounts say Hina climbed to the moon, where she may be seen with her calabash beside her.
2. Kapa workShe is Hina-i-kapaʻi-kua, Hina the tapa beater, so look for her beating or smoothing a pale sheet of cloth made from pounded wauke bark.
3. Kapa beater (iʻe kuku)A wooden beater incised with fine grooves or designs that leave watermarks in the cloth; tradition also names the long black rock below Kaʻuiki as the board on which she beat her cloth.
4. CalabashA gourd bowl rests by her side, recalling the calabash she carried to the moon; in another account she leaves her sister a calabash holding the moon and stars.
5. WaukeA few stalks or leaves of wauke (paper mulberry) in the setting mark the plant whose inner bark becomes kapa.
6. Kapa pāʻūShe wears a plain cream kapa wrap from chest to knees with a kapa cloth over one shoulder, echoing the pāʻū that was the main dress of Hawaiian women before sustained foreign contact.
7. BearingShe appears industrious, serene and dignified, a woman who works and who found her own way out of a weary life, with long dark hair.

Names and titles

• Hina in the MoonHina-i-ka-malama, the Hawaiian name for the woman who climbed to the moon
• The Kapa BeaterHina-i-kapaʻi-kua, Hina the tapa beater
• Mother of MāuiIn Hawaiian tellings she is the mother of the demigod Māui
• Why the Summer Days Are LongMāui snared the sun so his mother's kapa could dry; the sun agreed to long summer days and short winter ones
• Guardian of Night TravellersTahitians call Hina the guardian and protector of travellers at night