Kave De Hine Aligi was the primary goddess of Nukuoro, a Polynesian outlier in the eastern Caroline Islands. Kave was a powerful female spirit who presided over Nukuoro during the frequent absence of the benign male spirit Iaigausema. Many of the Nukuoro gods were erected on the sacred marae. The amalau, the community temple building, was at the eastern end of the marae, and it was in this amalau that Kave stood. She is considered the wife of the god Ariki tu te Natoaki, whose ‘spirit’ resided in a black volcanic stone, which also stood in the amalau. The amalau was a long four-cornered building with three open sides. The middle of the room was empty though completely laid with mats. Those god figures that were kept in the amalau stood in front of the only wall along one of the short sides of the temple. At certain times of the year, a priest would present offerings of fruits and other foods to the gods so they might look favourably on the endeavours of their people. By the 1870s, under the influence of Christianity, the people of Nukuoro were losing faith in the power of their old gods. In 1877 Kave passed into the hands of Mr. G. Cozens, an Auckland trader and shipping agent, who presented her to the Auckland Museum in October the following year.