A hapa Hawaiian girl, her tūtū wahine and the fire goddess Pele are the main characters in author Malia Maunakea’s Lei and the Legends book series. Maunakea writes modern moʻolelo for preteen readers with two books currently in the series: Lei and the Fire Goddess and Lei and the Invisible Island.
Maunakea, 43, was inspired to put pen to paper when her son was tearing through author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series based on Greek mythology. She realized that literature could be an outlet for him to learn about his Hawaiian culture.
When she couldn’t find any books like that for readers in his age group, she decided to write them herself. It also helped Maunakea reconnect with her own Hawaiian identity.
“It was through writing that I slowly got back in touch with what it means to be Hawaiian,” she said.
Maunakea currently lives in Boulder, Colo., with her husband, Dave Heinrich, and her children Kiele, 17, and Kaleohano, 15. However, her story begins in Hawaiʻi.
Her father, Nahua, grew up on the westside of Oʻahu. According to the family moʻolelo, their kupuna was rewarded by a king for a good deed with the name “Maunakea” because he was a large man with white hair.
Maunakea’s mother, Lynn, is from Buffalo, N.Y., and is of Polish descent.
Maunakea was born on Hawaiʻi Island where her parents made their home. She spent her early years in Volcano then moved to Hilo when she was in elementary school.
After being accepted at Kamehameha Schools Kapālama in seventh grade she experienced life on Oʻahu. As a Kamehameha student, Maunakea joined the marching band and was active in paddling.
Despite being at Kamehameha and having a background in hula, “I had many feelings about not being Hawaiian enough,” Maunakea said. “I was having a major identity crisis.”
Some of that stemmed from her appearance: while her sister, Kanoe, has their father’s Hawaiian features, Maunakea takes after their mother.
The summer after 10th grade, Maunakea attended a summer program at Duke University in North Carolina – “an incredible, eye-opening experience,” she said. That cemented her decision to move to the continent.
“I needed to move away to understand what being Hawaiian really meant,” she said.
After graduating from high school, she settled in Colorado. She loved the outdoors, blue skies and mountains. “It felt like I finally fit in,” Maunakea said.
At the University of Colorado Boulder, she pursued a degree in civil engineering with a minor in business. There, she met other students from Hawaiʻi. She joined the Hawaiʻi Club and danced at the lūʻau. She craved Hawaiian food and music – and the lāhui.
“Once you move away, you end up missing it quite a bit,” Maunakea said.
While working at a land surveying firm, she met her future husband, who is from Nevada. They went salsa dancing on their first date. She brought Dave home to Hawaiʻi in 2003 and they celebrated New Year’s at her late auntie’s home.
During her senior year in college, transportation planners from the firm Charlier Associates gave a presentation to students in Maunakea’s transportation engineering class. It turns out that the company had several projects in Hawaiʻi.
After the presentation, Maunakea pitched herself to them as a Hawaiian who would make a good asset to their team. She was hired after her graduation in 2005, and the company sent her to Hawaiʻi to work on various projects.
That same year, she married Dave.
The newlyweds decided to go on a five-month backpacking trip along the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail from April to October 2006. It gave them time to discuss their life plans, including having children. Their daughter was born in 2007, then their son followed in 2009.
Soon afterwards, Maunakea’s parents and sister moved to Colorado to be close to them.
When her keiki were young, Maunakea was a stay-at-home mom. Later, she worked part-time as an office manager at a law firm. Eventually, she decided to pursue a real estate license.
All that time, she felt a pull to Hawaiʻi. “It was always there, and I was just too busy to really listen to it while I was in my hustle mode,” Maunakea said.
After ending her real estate career in 2018, she seized upon the idea of writing. Her first project was a nonfiction book, Backpacking with Children (2023). The idea of writing preteen fiction about Hawaiʻi followed.
“Part of that journey was: Okay, but who am I to write these books?” she said.
So, Maunakea decided to learn more about her culture, history and language by enrolling in Windward Community College’s Hawaiian studies program. She graduated earlier this year with an associate degree in Hawaiian studies.
Her first work of fiction, Lei and the Fire Goddess, was published last year. It’s about Anna Leilani Kamaʻehu, a Hawaiian girl living in Colorado who visits her grandmother on Hawaiʻi Island. Leilani doesn’t believe the stories her grandmother tells her – until she offends Pele and must face the consequences.
This year, Maunakea published Lei and the Invisible Island. In this story, Leilani saves her best friend by traveling to an invisible island and facing off against evil spirits.
Maunakea has read her series at an ʻIolani Palace event and spoken at the Hawaiʻi Book and Music Festival.
She’s currently busy researching for her third book in the series, which will reimagine the story of the shark demigod, Nanaue. She’s also working on a historical fiction book for teens and adults.
“As long as they let me keep telling stories, I will keep trying to get our stories told,” Maunakea said.
And she plans to return to Hawaiʻi soon, with the first step complete: her parents and sister recently purchased a house in Kāneʻohe. “We’re building our little Maunakea village back home,” she said.
Maunakea’s debut novel, “Lei and the Fire Goddess” (2023) is an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a Common Sense Media Selection.
