Lāʻie Days Celebration

by | Jul 22, 2015 | News at the Center

Lāʻie Days “fireside” honors PCC “labor missionaries” Young Mormon missionaries are widely recognized around the world, but some of you may be less familiar with a unique group of Mormon missionaries who began serving about 70 years ago, originally in Tonga and Samoa....

Sesquicentennial

by | Apr 22, 2015 | News at the Center

Laie sesquicentennial celebration: In early 1865 — 150 years ago — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased the two ahupuaa [traditional Hawaiian land divisions] of Laie, and established the small community as a Mormon plantation, headquarters and...

Dance Tahiti!

by | Jun 26, 2014 | Cultures of Polynesia

While all cultures around the world have their own dances, none seem to be more synonymous with dancing than the cultures of Polynesia, and none more famous than the Tahitian tāmūrē (tah-moo-ray). Most people in the world will be able to describe Tahitian dancing in...

The People of the Sea

by | Jan 30, 2014 | Aotearoa, Cultures of Polynesia

My oldest grandson is a mix of a lot of ethnicities–he is, on one half–Maori, Tongan, Hawaiian, Chinese, Samoan with traces of Fijian and on the other half a European mix from Norway to the Netherlands. His name reflects this mixture, influenced by his...