A design created by Kumu Micah Kamohoaliʻi fashioned after his family’s traditional kapa and uhi markings from the island of Molokaʻi. His grandmother’s family are the descendants of the famed royal moʻo (lizard) clans of Moloka’i that trace their lineage to 700 B.C.E. and have a special kinship with the most powerful of all moʻo, Kihawahine.

The moʻo is indisputably significant, powerful, and important in the Hawaiian culture. Mo’o, a dragon or giant lizard, also shares the definition for spine, succession, and lineage. Like the word moʻo-lelo (story), a lei of words strung like vertebrae along a cord of meaning. The word moʻo-kūʻauhau (genealogy), is viewed as the interlocking bones as symbolic of one’s sacred lineage. Genealogy is the origins of where people come from, who we are, and where we are going. Mo’o-puna (grandchild), the succession from the spring of knowledge, the future generation. This design for Kihawahine represents succession, power, strength, guidance, leadership, and compassion.