Susana Magalei-Wong: “I wouldn’t trade those times”
Susana Magalei-Wong grew up in Laie and worked at the Center as a girl, but moved to Honolulu in 1975 and recently retired from Hawaiian Airlines.
Tui Hunt Ikihega: A PCC “baby”
Tua Hunt’s mother and father were both working at the Center when she was born . . . and she soon joined them, later returning as a student employee.
Aunty Kela: So much history since we first started
Aunty Kela Miller was born in Laie, learned hula from her ‘ohana, danced at the Hukilau, then became an original Hawaiian Villager and dancer at the PCC.
Haunani Kaanaanā Nash: “The best place to work”
Haunani Kaanaanā attended Church College of Hawaii in 1956, but didn’t join the PCC until 10 years later. She soon become one of the Center’s first female managers.
‘Aunty Val’: A PCC ‘living treasure’
Aunty Valetta Nepia Jeremiah from New Zealand devoted 50 years of her life to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and was revered as a “living treasure.”
Tivakno Ieli Sievinen: “Truly grateful”
Tivakno Ieli Sievinen was originally from the small, remote island of Rotuma, a political dependency of Fiji with its own language and culture. (She passed away in July 2020.)
Beth McKinnon Hunt: ‘Kiwi & Kangaroo’ days
Before marrying George Hunt of Samoa, Beth McKinnon Hunt left Australia to attend Church College of Hawaii in 1963, and ended up dancing in the Polynesian Cultural Center night show.
Elvis co-star revists the Center
Irene Tsu, who co-starred with Elvis Presley in the 1966 movie, Paradise Hawaiian Style, that was partially filmed at the Cultural Center during the summer of 1965, revisited “the set” for the first time since then in April 2023.
Ralph Barney, PCC’s first public relations manager
Ralph Barney, a journalism professor at Church College of Hawaii, believed he was the first public relations manager at thePolynesian Cultural Center in the early 1960s.
