Here we have Kāne, Kū, and Kanaloa. Kāne stands, plunging the ʻōʻō into the earth, calling forth the Kānewai spring of Mānoa. Kū appears overhead as a Manu O Kū and as the ʻōʻō, alluding to Kūkaʻōʻō, one of the heiau that lives in Mānoa. Third, we have Kanaloa, finally quenching his thirst with ʻawa. In this placement, the three form a triangle that pierces the earth and sky.

Stepping back, we see that Kāne has pierced the piko. The kalo that inspired this design was the variety, ʻapuwai, which collects water in the piko just like a pūnāwai does in the earth. The aʻa of the kalo are the wailele, kahawai, pūnāwai, and ʻaʻalu moving through the earth, mountains, valleys, and across the landscape. The layers, starting with the bottom, are the aquifer, the dirt and sand, the rippling water, then we move up to see landslides and moving earth, and mountains carved by wind and water.

I chose to illustrate our akua as “small” in this piece because we tend to picture them as larger than-life beings, but they can be as small as an atom or as large as the universe. When we see our akua in all things, big and small, then our reverence for life's creations grows.