Kihawahine
Kihawahine is a Hawaiian shapeshifting lizard goddess. When Kihawahine Mokuhinia Kalama‘ula Kalā‘aiheana, the daughter of the powerful sixteenth-century ruling chief of Māui, Piʻilani, and his wife Lā‘ieloheloheikawai, died, her bones were deified, transforming her into the goddess. Kihawahine's home is Mokuhinia, a wetland pond on the island of Moku'ula.
Kihawahine was the personal god of Keōpūolani, a wife of Kamehameha the Great. At Kamehameha's final battle at the Nu'uanu Pali, he carried an image of Kihawahine with him. In modern times, a carving of Kihawahine served as the figurehead on Hōkūleʻa, a voyaging canoe launched in 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
Legend of Kihawahine and Haumea
Kihawahine and Haumea were both goddesses worshiped in Hawaiian temples. The war between the two goddesses began because both wanted to marry Puna, the chief of Oahu. While touring the island in search of a suitable place for surf, Puna was tricked into following Kihawahine far into the ocean. The two stayed a long time living in a cave. The goddess cared for her beloved, but nevertheless, he was a prisoner there and knew that if he tried to escape, he would be destroyed by Kihawahine. After a long time, Puna managed to escape and returned to his first wife Haumea in Oahu. One day, while Haumea was out hunting for crabs in the sea, her husband wandered into a banana plantation that was owned by the island's new chief Kou. When he was discovered there, the watchmen took him to the chief who ordered for Puna to be killed. Haumea returned to find her husband's body hanging from a breadfruit tree. She ordered the tree to open and stepped inside it to stay with her husband.