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.
The PCC/BYU–Hawaii Brass Band, which previously last played in 1995, held a reunion during the Center’s 50th-anniversary celebration in 2013.
Tongans at the Polynesian Cultural Center draped the queen’s summer palace in the Tongan Village in mourning the death of Her Majesty Queen Mother Halaevalu Mata’aho, who passed away at age 90 on February 19, 2017.
Filipe Tohi, a Tongan lashing expert, was brought in to help with the Center’s Tongan Village renovation in 2016.
Sister Helen Ream Bateman, who passed away in 2023 at age 101, started serving as a senior missionary at the Polynesian Cultural Center at age 86 with special permission.
Creasepaul Tofa, a PCC Samoan Village culture “ambassador” learned his skills growing up on the island of Savage.
Felix Tai, who is originally from Malaysia where he first learned to cook from his mother, attended BYU–Hawaii and worked in the Samoa Village before becoming PCC’s executive chef.
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