Spring
2006 e-newsletter
Whakataetae,
other special events coming up LAIE, Hawaii
The
PCC will host its seventh annual Maori Whakataetae [competition]
in kapa haka, the traditional songs and dances of the indigenous
Polynesian people of New Zealand on Friday and Saturday, April 28
- 29, 2006.
The Friday evening
portion of this year's Maori arts festival includes a fashion show, music by the Kaka family band, and a speech competition
in te reo -- or Maori language.
The next morning
in the PCC's Pacific Theater, five groups will share an incredible
array of Maori chants, action songs, haka war dances and
poi ball dances, all done with special attention to entrances, exits,
costuming and lots of pukana -- the rolling of the
eyes and protruding tongue gestures -- as well as temporary
tamoko or traditional tattoo designs.
Competitors
include former champions Te Hokioi, led by PCC's Maori
Cultural Ambassador Seamus Fitzgerald; Te Roopu o Ratapu, led by
Hawaka and Aunty Valetta Jeremiah, who last competed in 2003; and
Ngati Hiona -- a unique group made up of members from Utah,
Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, many of whom previously
performed at the Polynesian Cultural Center -- led by David Atkinson
and Edwin Napia.
Members
of the committee planning this year's event include Uncle Colin
Karewa Shelford, recently retired Aotearoa Islands manager;
Uncle George Kaka, Aunty Valetta Jeremiah, Aunty Nikki Wallace,
Tama Halvorsen and Mark Clawson; and PCC senior manager over special
events, Ellen Gay Dela Rosa.
Of
the widespread Ngati Hiona group, which appeared in last
year's Whakataetae for the first time, Fitzgerald said,
"They're practicing via Internet and using DVDs. Once a month
they get together in Vegas."
"The
use of modern media to practice demonstrates the tenacity of our
people to survive and preserve our cultural heritage. Similar to
the survival trait of our warrior ancestors to adapt and not let
any obstacle -- even great distances -- stop them from sharing,
Ngati Hiona and all of the groups are sharing our culture
and our great love for it."
Two
other groups will perform in exhibition: last year's champions,
Wananga Maori o Hawaii, led by Tama Halvorsen; and last
year's junior champions, Te Ropu o Tumanako, led by Sheena
Alaiasa.
Fitzgerald explained
there will be no tamariki or junior division this year.
"Next year is just juniors. We found it was a real stress
on the groups, so we'll start alternating with juniors one
year, then seniors."
This will also
be Fitzgerald's last competition at PCC -- for a while:
He's going back home in June to work on a Ph.D. in anthropology.
He originally came to PCC as a BYU-Hawaii student worker in 1993,
graduating in Pacific Island Studies in '99. Then after earning
a master's degree in Maori Studies in New Zealand, he returned
again to the Cultural Center in 2002.
"I want to go home and 'sharpen the saw,' so to say. I'm feeling
the need to rejuvenate," he said, stressing this doesn't mean
the end of Te Hokioi, the 2004 overall winners. "There
is talk right now, if Ngati Hiona can do it by Internet and
DVD, the group wants to continue, and I've encouraged them."
"Te Hokioi isn't based around a person;
it's based around the concept of our ideals and aspirations for
the Maori community. As long as the need is there, the group will
always be there. We never came in to win competitions; it was more
for our families and to preserve the culture. They all still want
to do it, and I've given them enough in the last four years that
they can carry on."
Indeed, as pointed out in the PCC's
Whakataetae web site, the level of Maori competition at
the Polynesian Cultural Center is so high that many feel the winners
here should perform in Te Matatini, New Zealand's
biannual national kapa haka competition.
"There's always a possibility," Fitzgerald said,
noting that one of the tentative judges for this year's event
is a national judge who could qualify the Hawaii winner for Te
Matatini.
After his doctoral studies, Fitzgerald confirmed he "would
like to come back to PCC. I always felt I had a role to play. I
love this place. This is where I started. The Cultural Center has
played a pivotal role in my desire to learn more about my own culture,
and I love to give back."
Don't miss the 2006 Whakataetae if you're
going to be on Oahu.
Top
A participant's perspective:
Marcia Rangimarie
Perret -- a senior Pacific Islands Studies major at BYU-Hawaii
from Hamilton, New Zealand, and a student worker in the PCC's
Aotearoa (New Zealand) Islands -- will perform her traditional
Maori songs and dances for the fourth and final time during this
year's seventh annual Whakataetae Festival.
Perret,
who will graduate in June and plans to go on to a master's
degree in Maori studies or anthropology back home, came to Laie
on an International Work
Experience Scholarship, a unique program fully funded by the
PCC and jointly sponsored by BYU-Hawaii. "My family has eight
children, and my parents wouldn't have been able to afford
to support me for any kind of university studies, but they knew
I could work here on the IWES program," she said.
"When I graduate, I'll have no debt at all. Compared to some
of my other friends who stayed in New Zealand and studied there,
they've got student loans that will keep them in debt for ten-to-twenty
years."
"I've
enjoyed the work part. The majority of my time here has been in
the New Zealand village. I've also worked in Museum Stores
and danced in the evening show, but those two jobs didn't
really compare to my experience in the village," said Perret,
who is the oldest child in her family. Her sister, Nataria, also
recently started studying at BYU-Hawaii.
"This feels
like home. I've been able to meet a lot of people from New Zealand
who know a lot more about the culture than I do, who approve of the
program and what we're trying to do here at PCC. That makes
me feel a lot better about what I do, especially since we're
so far away. My knowledge of tikanga Maori [customs and traditions]
and my appreciation for it has grown a lot."
"For example, ever since I got here I've been
participating in Whakataetae, and for the last two years
I've been under the direction of Seamus Fitzgerald in the group
Te Hokioi. This year, because I'm graduating, I've been
able to incorporate some of it into my senior project. Part of it
is to compose a waiata ringa [action song] and whakawatea
[group exit], and to instruct the group. I'm working with Seamus,
who's supervising my senior project and helping me."
"The waiata ringa talks about the waka taua
[canoe] here in the village and the journey it went through traveling
to the maunga tapu or 'sacred mountains' back
in New Zealand, and all the sacred canoes that the people descend
from. At the end, the canoe is living in Hawaii and is recognized
as having an important purpose for the Maoris here; but on a deeper
level it's talking about us as vehicles for our Maori culture
in Hawaii."
"Because I'm going home soon, the whakawatea
is also about my experience here and thanking the Hawaiian people,
the Polynesian Cultural Center and BYU-Hawaii for all the opportunities.
There are a lot of us who are graduating, and this will be our last
performance."
"I'm absolutely grateful for the PCC for many reasons,"
Perret continued. "One, of course, is for allowing me to come
and obtain an education that I wouldn't have been able to
get otherwise. It also provided me a home away from home. I work
with aunties from back in New Zealand who have the same accent as
me. I also appreciate my Maori culture more, which has allowed me
to be closer to the Maori side of my family in New Zealand, and
all of the differences that make us Maori."
Mark your calendars for upcoming PCC special events:
"We hope
to feature carvers from Hawaii and the South Pacific in exhibits
and workshops that showcase more than what we normally do,"
she added.
Top
A
review of recent PCC special events
The
PCC has currently scheduled seven
special events in 2006, three of which took place in January
and February. Here's why they were special:
The E
Luana Kakou -- or "Let's Enjoy Ourselves"
-- Concert on January 27 lived up to its name as hundreds of
fans of the Makaha Sons trio packed the Hale Aloha for an evening
of beautiful, contemporary Hawaiian music and, of course, lots of
hula help from various dancers on hand for the accompanying festival
the next morning.
"We've
got about 15 hulas tonight. That's enough for two shows,"
quipped Jerome Koko, one of the Sons for the past 30 years. "It's
been four wonderful years we've been coming here," he
added in introducing their hana hou [encore] number, Kui
Lee's I'll Remember You, which they dedicated
"to our servicemen and women."
"We loved
it all," said a couple from California who came to the concert…which
is a nice summary for this special event.
 The
PCC's 15th annual Moanikeala Hula Festival took
the Pacific Theater stage the next morning, January 28, and featured
several hundred haumana or students ranging from
keiki toddlers to white-haired tutu [grandmas]
from five hula halau [schools]. They all danced in honor
of the late Aunty Sally Moanikeala Wood Naluai, the PCC's first
kumu hula.
Aunty Sally,
as everyone called her, taught hula to the BYU-Hawaii student performers
at PCC from its opening on October 12, 1963, until she retired in
1980. After that she acted as a hula consultant for PCC until she
passed away in 2000.
In
earlier years the Festival was an auana or modern hula
competition just for keiki [children], but since the PCC's
40th anniversary in 2003, the annual event has included hula by
both keiki and adult dancers. For
more information on the Moanikeala Hula Festival…
Though smaller
than other special events, the PCC Valentine's dinner-dance
on February 14 in the Hale Kuai provided a lovely opportunity for
approximately 150 people to enjoy some great music, fine food and
fun dancing.
PCC senior manager
over special events Ellen Gay Dela Rosa described it as "a beautiful
evening that was really, really good. We had more people than we expected."
They enjoyed special appearances by kumu hula and musician Natalie
Ai Kamauu, "Samoan Idol" Lillian Faifili, and the group
Kapena.
Top
Kamaaina
discounts: the best in town
PCC
is offering special discounts to Hawaii
kamaaina and Annual Pass holders through May 2006 when
they accompany visiting family and friends to the Center. Kamaaina
must present proof of their Hawaii residency to take advantage of
this special offer.
"Kamaaina
can bring family and friends to PCC's villages at a 20 percent
discount or buy a full-day package at a 10 percent discount,"
said P. Alfred Grace, PCC Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
"During this offer, kamaaina can enjoy free entrance
to the villages or 20 percent off any package."
"Annual
Pass holders can receive 20 percent off packages for their guests
during this special promotion, and otherwise always have the advantage
to pass on a discount of 10 percent to their visiting family and
friends. This discount is good on all regular priced packages, with
a limit of four tickets per pass holder," Grace added.
Top
What's
a 'service missionary'?
Many people
are familiar with the sight of young missionary representatives
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints (popularly called Mormons or LDS), which founded BYU-Hawaii
in 1955 and the Polynesian Cultural Center in 1963. There are over
50,000 of these missionaries serving around the world.
But you may
be less familiar with the LDS Church's "senior missionaries"
-- older, retired couples and individuals who serve voluntarily
in various capacities for periods ranging from six months to two
years. There are also thousands of them, including more than 30
currently serving at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Unlike their
younger counterparts, senior PCC service missionaries have assigned
responsibilities in the areas of their expertise. They make a tremendous
contribution and are valuable members of the Cultural Center's
'ohana [family].
This
new page on the PCC web site will introduce you to this unique
group of "senior missionaries."
Top
PCC
guests express high satisfaction
According to
professionally administered surveys, 96 percent of all PCC guests
rated their overall satisfaction with the PCC experience either
"excellent" or "very good."
For example,
one guest from Arizona recently wrote:
Tala was
our host, and she was great. My nine-year-old daughter was not feeling
well, and Tala went above and beyond the call of duty to exceed
our expectations, and create a wonderful memory my family will never
forget. My six-year-old daughter wanted to take her home. Tala entertained
the children -- something you can't train someone to
have. Congratulations on hiring her, and please recognize her for
her special guest service today. My family and I had a wonderful
day, and we will visit again and recommend the PCC to our friends
and family.
 The
"Tala" referred to is Josephine Tala Peseta, a sophomore
math major at BYU-Hawaii from Samauga, Savaii, Samoa, who has worked
at the PCC for about a year-and-a-half. Like Marcia Perret above,
Peseta is a work-scholarship student.
"I
enjoy the fact we meet a lot of people," she said. "When
I was a tour guide, I looked forward to it every day. I also liked
sharing the culture and talking about different things that happen
back home."
Peseta said
she actually has learned quite a bit about her Samoan and other
Polynesian cultures since coming here. "I first started working
in the Samoan village, and that helped a lot, then when I started
working as a tour guide, I learned even more. Now I'm proud
to answer the questions people ask."
"I really
like helping them, and I like the spirit of hospitality at PCC,"
she said.
Top
Browse
our online gift shop
In preparation
for the addition of several new items, the Polynesian Cultural Center's
online gift shop is on a sales
spree; several items that normally sell very well at the Polynesian
Cultural Center are now on
sale only online.
For example,
our Fa'a Samoa
DVD is on sale for 60% off. Regularly priced at $24, you can
purchase this DVD for $9. Our Maori
poi balls, a kid's favorite, is now only $4 online. And don't
forget, our free shipping offer is still valid. Click
here for details.
Top
PCC
updates cumulative totals
Some people
call this part of the newsletter "boiler plate"
-- the sentence or paragraph that usually comes at the end
of a business or institutional press release and gives a general
overview of that organization.
In
our case, some of the data in the Polynesian Cultural Center's
closing statement was recently updated, and the numbers are so significant
while that we call your attention to the following:
- Over 32 million
visitors have come to the PCC since we opened on October 12, 1963.
- The PCC has
contributed nearly $150 million toward the education of BYU-Hawaii
students.
- Nearly 15,000
BYU-Hawaii students have supplemented their educational expenses
by working at the PCC.
- Over 750
BYU-Hawaii students currently work at the Center each semester,
augmenting their formal education with practical experience.
- Over 500
of the BYU-Hawaii student workers are on the International
Work Experience Scholarship program.
Top
Mahalo again
. . .
Thank
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©2006
Polynesian Cultural Center,
All rights reserved.
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