Pōuli Magalei Sr.: From town runner to tram driver
[Reprinted from pcc50.com, May 29, 2013; interview and photo by Mike Foley] Pouli Magalei sr. started in 1964, when he came from American Samoa. He worked for two years as a tour guide, usher, and town runner. He left for a while, and came back to work in Security from 1971-72. He returned again about […]
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.
James Brague: PCC/BYUH Brass Band 2
The PCC/BYU–Hawaii Brass Band, which previously last played in 1995, held a reunion during the Center’s 50th-anniversary celebration in 2013.
PCC honors Tonga’s late queen mother
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.
Tongan lashing expert brings skills to PCC
Filipe Tohi, a Tongan lashing expert, was brought in to help with the Center’s Tongan Village renovation in 2016.
Sister Bateman kept quilting for PCC
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.
Sione Milford got ‘immersed’ in Tongan culture
[Reprinted from a 2017 PCC blog story and photo by Mike Foley] Sione Milford is currently the Samoan Village “chief,” but when he first came to Laie he worked in the Tongan Village — and some native Tongans didn’t realize that the Polynesian Cultural Center’s Tongan culture ambassador at that time was Samoan. Of course, all […]
Samoan ‘ambassador’ joins East Coast media blitz
Creasepaul Tofa, a PCC Samoan Village culture “ambassador” learned his skills growing up on the island of Savage.
PCC Executive Chef Tai puts on NFL luau
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.