To many Hawaiians Pelehonuamea (“lava, the red earth”) is actually an aumakua, or ancestral spirit, whose blood flows in their veins, and whom they revere as a part of their lineage. A grand mythic cycle of chants and hula describe her journey from island to island seeking a home, before settling in the living crater of Halema’uma’u. Pele strides through a volcanic landscape of magma and burning Ohi’a forest, holding her sister Hi’iaka’ikapoliopele (Hi’iaka in the bosom of Pele) in her embryonic form of an egg, while stirring the lava with her o’o staff.