The Polynesian Cultural Center’s motto — One ‘ohana sharing aloha — is the perfect introduction to this section of Legacy. Sharing aloha is part of the Center’s historical heritage. For example, did you know:

• Some early Hawaiian residents of Laie include revered kūpuna [elders or ancestors] hula masters [kumu] who helped keep those traditions alive at a time when they were fading elsewhere.
• When a group of Hawaiians, primarily from Laie, migrated to a remote location in Iosepa, Utah, in the 1880s, their performing group of musicians and dancers soon became popular throughout the area.
• When the predominantly Hawaiian and Samoan residents of Laie needed to raise money in the late 1940s to replace their chapel which accidentally burned down in 1940, they started a successful Hawaiian hukilau event on a beautiful beach with the same name.
• Soon after the Church College of Hawaii (renamed Brigham Young University–Hawaii in 1974) opened here in 1955, faculty and cultural leaders organized Polynesian students into a hālau or learning group to study authentic island songs and dances. Before long, they were being asked to perform in Waikiki.
• And when university leaders decided the students needed a close place where they could work and raise money for their education, to this day the adjacent Polynesian Cultural Center provides a unique work-study program which guarantees their schooling without years of stifling loan repayment debt.

Learn more about how we share our aloha at the Polynesian Cultural Center: