Key Info

- Along with his family and pets, survives the flood that wiped out humanity. 

Brief Bio

In Hawaiian mythology, Nuʻu was a man who built an ark with which he escaped a Great Flood. Known as the Kai-a-ka-hina-liʻi ("sea that made the chiefs fall"), the flood wiped out humanity, with only Nuʻu, his family, and his pets surviving in a vessel named Waʻa-halau-aliʻi-o-ka-moku.He landed his vessel on top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island. Nuʻu mistakenly attributed his safety to the moon, and made sacrifices to it. Kāne, the creator god, descended to earth on a rainbow and explained Nuʻu's mistake.

The myth has been interpreted as depicting the hazards of the Oceanian environment and local peoples' ability to withstand them. Missionaries to Hawaii in the 19th century considered him analogous to Noah of the Bible.