Home > Purpose > History
of the Polynesian Cultural Center
The
allure of old Polynesia lingers among the Pacific island people
who demonstrate their traditional arts and crafts and perform
their lively songs and dances at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
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Early
History
• As
early as 1844, missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints (popularly called the Mormons) were working among the Polynesians
in Tahiti and surrounding islands.
• Missionaries
arrived in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1850. By 1865, the LDS
Church had purchased a 6,000-acre plantation of Laie.
• The
LDS Temple in Laie — started in 1915 and dedicated on Thanksgiving
Day 1919 — attracted more islanders from throughout the South
Pacific. By the 1920s, LDS Church missionaries had carried their Christian
teachings to all the major island groups of Polynesia, by living among
the people and speaking their languages.
• In
1921, Laie had become very cosmopolitan — so much so that David
O. McKay, a young Church leader on a world tour of Church missions,
was deeply stirred as he watched school children of many races pledging
allegiance to the American flag. That incident is depicted today in
a beautiful mosaic mural hanging above the entrance to the McKay Foyer,
a BYU-Hawaii building named in McKay's honor.
| • McKay
envisioned that a school of higher learning would be built in the
small community to go along with the recently completed Temple,
making Laie the educational and spiritual center of the LDS Church
in the Pacific. Beginning in 1955, under the direction of experienced
contractors and craftsmen, "labor missionaries" built
the school McKay had foreseen decades before, The Church College
of Hawaii. At the ground breaking ceremony for the college, McKay
predicted its students would literally influence millions of people
in the years ahead, (In 1974, the Church college became a branch
campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Today, BYU-Hawaii is
a four-year liberal arts school with about 2,400 undergraduate
students). |
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• About
the time of McKay's visit to Laie in 1921, Matthew Cowley was finishing
his first round of missionary service in New Zealand. There, he developed
a deep love for the Maori people and other Polynesians. In time, he
also became another important LDS leader who was concerned with the
erosion of traditional island cultures. In a speech Cowley delivered
in Honolulu, he said he hoped "...to see the day when my Maori
people down there in New Zealand will have a little village there at
Laie with a beautiful carved house...the Tongans will have a village
too, and the Tahitians and Samoans and all those islanders of the sea."
| • The
potential of such a concept was well established in the late 1940s
when the Church members in Laie started a hukilau — a
fishing festival with luau feast and Polynesian entertainment — as
a fund-raising event. From the beginning, it proved immensely popular
and provided the inspiration for the well-known Hukilau Song that
begins: "Oh we're going to a hukilau...where the laulau is
the kaukau at the big luau." Busloads of visitors drove to
Laie throughout the 1950's; and by the end of that decade, Polynesian
students at Church College of Hawaii had started up Polynesian
Panorama — a production of authentic South Pacific island
songs and dances. They eventually played to standing-room-only
crowds in Waikiki. |
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• Cowley
did not live to see his dream fulfilled but the vision had been planted
in the hearts of others who nurtured and shaped it into reality. In
early 1962, President McKay authorized construction of the Polynesian
Cultural Center. He knew the completed project would provide much-needed
and meaningful employment for the struggling students in then-rural
Laie, as well as add an important dimension to their studies.
| • Over
100 "labor missionaries" again volunteered to help build
the Polynesian Cultural Center's original 39 structures on a 12-acre
site that had previously been planted in taro, the native root
used to make the Hawaiian staple food poi. Skilled artisans
and original materials from the South Pacific were imported to
ensure the authenticity of the village houses. |
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| • The
Polynesian Cultural Center opened to the public on Oct. 12, 1963. |
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• In
the earliest years, Saturday was the only night villagers at the Polynesian
Cultural Center could draw a big enough crowd to fill the 600-seat
amphitheater. Following the tremendous boom in Hawaii tourism industry,
however, and promotional appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and on TV's Ed
Sullivan Show, the Center began to thrive. By the late 1960s, the
amphitheater had been expanded to almost 1,300 seats. Villagers staged
the evening show every night (except Sundays) and sometimes twice a
night to accommodate peak-season crowds.
| • A
major expansion in 1975 relocated and enlarged the Hawaiian village
and added a Marquesan tohua or ceremonial compound. The
following year a new amphitheater, which now seats almost 2,800
guests, was opened and several other buildings were added to the
grounds, including the 1,000-seat Gateway Restaurant in 1979. |
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• Many
other additions followed in the 1980s: an 1850s-era Christian missionary
compound; a 70-foot bure kalou, or Fijian "spirit house" whose
jutting roof dominates the northern end of the Center; the Migrations
Museum; Yoshimura Store, a 1920's-style shop that serves island treats;
and totally re-landscaped villages.
• The
1990s saw a new wave of important PCC products, all intended to ensure
that each return visit is a totally new experience: In 1995, the Center
introduced a new and exciting night show, Horizons, Where the Sea
Meets the Sky; a breathtaking IMAX™ film, The Living Sea;
and Treasures of Polynesia, a $1.4 million shopping plaza featuring
a large collection of authentic island merchandise. In 1996, the Center
created the Ali'i Luau, which takes guests on a nostalgic trip through
Polynesia with popular hapa-haole hula music while they enjoy
traditional Hawaiian luau food and entertainment. The luau was awarded
the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau's "Keep It Hawaii" Award
for the most authentic Hawaiian luau. In 1997, the Center was also
awarded the 'Oihana Maika'i Award by the State of Hawaii for excellence
in service and productivity.
• The
turn of the millennium has brought more changes to the Center including
the addition of the IMAX™ film Dolphins, improvements
to the front entrance, modifications to the retail sales areas to create
a more authentic shopping experience and more. The Aloha Theater was
renovated to handle special group functions of 1,000 or more. In response
to visitor satisfaction surveys, cultural presentations were lengthened
to an hour each to give the visitors more to experience. And, to give
them more time to experience it all, the PCC introduced its "Free
within Three" campaign that lets a guest purchase a ticket for
a package and then come back again for two additional days to fit in
all that they may have missed the first day. The year 2001 brought
the start of many changes to the face of the Center, with more than
$1.0 million in improvements to the front entrance landscaping.
• As
the PCC celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2003, there are even more
changes taking place to enhance the beauty, culture and learning guests
of all ages and backgrounds enjoy. A new front entrance features mini-museum
displays of artifacts from each of the islands represented at the Center,
as well as hand-carved replicas of the various voyaging canoes used
throughout Polynesia. An exhibit featuring the moai statues
of Rapa Nui or Easter Island has opened to round out representation
of the Polynesian Triangle; and an all-new venue and show have been
added for the award-winning Ali'i Luau. The show returns home to the
start of the PCC in the Hale aloha Theater and features songs and dances
that take guests on a journey around the Hawaiian Islands and into
the heart of Hawaii's people.
The Polynesian
Cultural Center has concentrated this spirit in a beautiful North Shore
setting and consequently become world-renowned as a special place of
enchantment, entertainment and education.
Imaging
what Matthew Cowley would think if he could see how popular
his "little villages" are today! He was right in
assuming that the Aloha Spirit as practiced by the people of
Polynesia would prove to be infectious and that their culture
and traditions would endure if they were shared with others.
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