About the Polynesian Cultural Center Site
This site is a culmination of thousands of hours of research, review, creative design, and development over several years, with information spanning generations, much further beyond the constraints of the existence of the Polynesian Cultural Center or the creation of the internet. It is a site that has a purpose to accurately depict the Polynesian Cultural Center and Polynesian Culture in general through online and interactive media. Although the internet is less than two decades old, much of the content comes from interviews and personal experiences spanning deep into the cultures of each island people — from the beginning of our time in many instances as passed through oral and written history to our day.
Graphics
Ho'ike in Hawaiian is loosely translated as the process to "help someone see, or understand." We have found the best way to help someone get a good understanding of us online is to use the senses of sight and sound. We hope that in doing this through still images, video, audio, and any other rich media, we will continue to help people understand the essence of Polynesia and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The rich media a visitor to our site will experience is, unless stated otherwise, exactly what they will experience at PCC or in Polynesia. The images, video and audio are all exact representations of what a guest can expect during time spent with us.
Content
The content of this site, as noted earlier, is the culmination of several sources of information. Typically the information is posted to our site after interviews with the people closest to the topic being discussed. All cultural questions are referred to those directly tied to the culture. Typically, all information related to culture is received from people from the cultures discussed. Information is always sent out to be thoroughly reviewed and edited by those closely related to the content from the respective cultures. Please note that the content continues to evolve as cultures and people evolve. Historical and cultural perspectives differ also, in many instances, due to perspective, historical sequence and experience.
Written Polynesian Diacritical Markings
Please note that due to the inability for us at the Polynesian Cultural Center to know exactly how content is going to display on the varying range of computer platforms and browser versions, we have chosen to not include written Polynesian diacritical or other language-specific markings in our regular online text. Rather, in most language instances, we try to apply the similar logic that one would experience in studying a Hawaiian newspaper at the turn of the 19th century, when almost everyone here knew Hawaiian. One would read the newspaper and not find a single diacritical mark, understanding that it was the context of the word that determined where the diacritical markings would be.
Please note that this is not out of the lack of understanding where the marks should go, or a lack of sympathy for the current renaissance of including Hawaiian diacritical markings in written media: Specifically the macron over "long vowels" and the "inverted apostrophe" for "glottal stop" sounds. These marks help today's people of Hawaii and visitors alike more correctly pronounce the words. Rather, it is simply a technological growing pain for the time being of dealing with the myriad of browser/ computer versions and platforms that usually do not include so-called "Hawaiian fonts" and/or mis-code the Hawaiian diacritical mark for "long vowels" from a macron to a European umlaut. Likewise, internet searches for a Polynesian word with diacritical markings vs. the same word without such markings is likely to return different results: For example, Hawaii vs. the more traditionally correct spellings of Hawai'i. or Kauai vs. Kaua'i. This web site generally uses diacritical markings where needed to avoid misunderstanding the meaning of Polynesian words if the markings are omitted.
Your Input
Your input about the content on this site is extremely valuable. If you have any corrections or recommendations on what information needs to be updated and/ or changed, please let us know by emailing us.
