Colorful Canoe Pageant Honors Polynesian Legacy

From its very beginning in 1963, the Polynesian Cultural Center has featured traditional canoes and, soon after opening, launched a canoe pageant that remains an important part of our daily program. The canoes and pageant not only pay tribute to the islanders’ ancient...

All Hawaii Honors King Kamehameha Each June 11

In 1871 King Kamehameha V set apart June 11th as a national holiday honoring his great-grandfather, King Kamehameha I, who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawaii through a series of military victories and alliances with other island ali’i or rulers between...
Kalua Pig, Hawaiian Style in Your Own Kitchen

Kalua Pig, Hawaiian Style in Your Own Kitchen

Story by Polynesian Cultural Blogger, Bobby Akoi, Jr I grew up in a Hawaiian homestead community of Keaukaha on the the Big Island of Hawai’i.  One tradition that I loved participating in as a kid was putting a pig underground.   Kalua is a traditional Hawaiian...

2014 Iosepa Summer Launch

The Iosepa — the Brigham Young University–Hawaii/Polynesian Cultural Center’s Hawaiian sailing canoe —left its permanent home berth in the PCC’s Hawaiian Village on August 51, 2014, and is currently moored off Hukilau Beach in Laie, in preparation for its next...

Act Like A Local

My Samoan dad raised us on old recordings of Hawai’ian comedians, like Rap Reiplinger, Don Ho and other Hawaiian artists. By the time I visited Hawai’i, I knew basic Hawai’ian Pidgin, and the proper ways and times to wear an ie lavalava, or “sarong” . I didn’t realize...