In Hawaiian mythology, Māui is a culture hero and ancient chief who appears in several different genealogies. In the Kumulipo he is the son of ʻAkalana and his wife Hina-a-ke-ahi (Hina). This couple has four sons, Māui-mua, Māui-waena, Māui-kiʻikiʻi and Māui-a-kalana. Māui-a-kalana’s wife is named Hinakealohaila; his son is Nanamaoa. Māui is one of the Kupua (heroic tricksters). His name is the same as that of the Hawaiian island Maui, although native tradition holds that it is not named for him directly, but instead named after the son of Hawaii’s discoverer (who was named after Māui himself).

This is the story of how Maui the demigod found all of the eight Hawaiian islands. The story goes that Maui fished out the islands by tricking his brothers into letting him come out to fish with them. The brothers never took him out because whenever they did he would catch a scrawny little fish. but finally they decide to take him out with them and while out in the sea, Maui casts his hook, Manaiakalani which is baited with the wing of the goddess and Maui’s mother Hina’s pet bird, the ‘alae convinced he would catch the biggest fish in the sea, Pimoe but when Maui casts his hook it clings on to the ocean floor and the pressure causes him to tell his brothers to not look back and to keep on paddling forward, because if they were to look back they would ruin the quest of catching the fish but finally the brothers look back in the result of curiosity and instead of the fish God he pulls up the eight Hawaiian islands.