Hawai’i students keep Samoan tradi...

Sign up for our Polynesian Cultural Center newsletters:  Email Sign Up     ‘We Are Samoa’  Hundreds of Hawai’i high school students practiced for months to learn traditional Samoan customs, songs, dances and household chores so they could share them with several thousand parents and fans on Saturday, May 11, 2019, during the Polynesian Cultural Center’s 27th annual We Are Samoa festival. The festival is held each year in conjunction with the PCC’s World Fireknife Championships, which has its own tradition of being a don’t-miss event. As in...

2019 Fireknife: Women, junior, and inter...

Sign up for our Polynesian Cultural Center newsletters:  Email Sign Up   Along with the men’s championship, the Polynesian Cultural Center’s annual World Fireknife Championships includes three other divisions of competition — the women’s open, juniors (ages 6-11), and intermediates (ages 12-17), were held in conjunction with the We Are Samoa high school cultural arts festival. All these events were held this year from May 8-11, 2019, in La’ie, Hawaii. Here are the winners in the other three fireknife divisions: Congratulations to our 2019 women’s World...

Penesa wins 2019 World Fireknife Champio...

Sign up for our Polynesian Cultural Center newsletters:  Email Sign Up   A panel of judges selected Falaniko Penesa of Puipa’a, Upolu, Samoa, as the 2019 World Fireknife champion. The finalists competed on May 11 during a sold-out performance of the Polynesian Cultural Center’s famous HA: Breath of Life evening show.   Three former PCC World Fireknife Champions in finals “This was the first time we had a true battle of the champions at the end. All three of the finalists were former champions,” said Tagaloataoa Delsa Atoa Moe, PCC vice president of...

A one-of-a-kind hands-on Polynesian cook...

Sign up for our Polynesian Cultural Center newsletters:  Email Sign Up   See it, smell it, taste it, love it! Experience the REAL Polynesia If you venture beyond the urban buzz of Honolulu and head north, you’ll quickly find yourself in a tropical landscape that has remained relatively untouched. The small town of Lā’ie rests quietly on O’ahu’s North Shore and is home to Hawai’i’s number one paid attraction, The Polynesian Cultural Center! As detailed in our mission statement, our purpose is to “…share with the world the cultures, diversity, and spirit of the nations...

The 2019 World Fireknife website –...

  Wednesday, May 8 – Saturday, May 11th at the Polynesian Cultural Center Competitors and fans from all over the world flock to the Polynesian Cultural Center once a year to see the World Fireknife Competition and the We Are Samoa festival. Ticket information and schedules for our  2019 competition are now available at www.worldfireknife.com! Heart-pounding action, top level competitors, and fire! Four nights and one amazing day of activities. You don’t wan’t to miss this, and now, with livestreaming, you’ll never have to!  This year is...

To protect and defend: The sacred duty o...

Ha: Breath of Life completes the Polynesian Cultural Center experience every evening in the Pacific Theater. People love this circle-of-life production that follows a young couple fleeing from a natural disaster, the birth of their son Mana, his coming of age and more — all performed beautifully through the perspectives of the various islands we represent at the PCC. Most of the cultural insights are obvious and pleasingly portrayed, but there’s at least one cultural “nugget” in the Samoan section of the Ha — when the young man Mana is smitten by the beautiful Lani — that...

Powerful Polynesian symbolism you can se...

  Polynesians use symbols to represent ideas, emotions, states of mind, phrases, movements, memories, loved ones and much more. The symbols can be embodied in words, names, carvings, lei, designs, dance, music, and so on. Hawaiians say many such representations have kaona, expressions with deeper meanings, concealed references or inuendos. The kaona might be beautiful or romantic, others sarcastic or pejorative. Many might appreciate an island song for its surface meaning, not realizing those who understand the kaona get a different meaning from the metaphorical...

Presidents Council Achieving Results at ...

  Leadership by the numbers Imagine an organization dedicated to portraying the best of ancient cultures in a modern environment. Add in executive leadership who must thoroughly understand both sides of that equation, and you begin to define the Polynesian Cultural Center’s seven-person President’s Council: They cumulatively tally an impressive 150-plus years of experience at the Center. All are college graduates, five from Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Five represent the cultures of Tonga, Samoa, Aotearoa and Fiji. All have strong ties to Polynesia. Five...