The story of the legend of Haumea in Waihe’e refuge as told by Scott Fisher and depicted in a painting by artist Joëlle C.
About this interview
Artist Joëlle C. is joined by Scott Fisher, who has cared for the Waiheʻe refuge for more than two decades, to tell the legend behind her painting. In ancient times Haumea, goddess of childbirth, safely delivered a child on Molokaʻi and received a sacred tree as an offering. She searched all of Maui for the right place to plant it, choosing a hill above present-day Waiheʻe School — and built the great sand dunes of Waiheʻe with her own hands to shelter the young tree from the shore winds. Generations later the tree was cut down; carried by the stream to the sea, it drifted to Oʻahu, where it was fashioned into a sacred temple image — its journey a cycle of life, death, and renewal.
Joëlle describes the layers of symbolism in the painting: the hau tree with its changing heart-shaped leaves, the breadfruit patterns of Haumea’s dress carrying tradition from past to future, the lama tree — whose name means light — honoring the storyteller, and the fish that follow the fallen tree out to sea, because life goes on. Together they reflect on mālama ʻāina: that in planting and caring for the land today, we reenact Haumea’s own devotion, and that when the land is healed, all of us are healed.
