TALK STORY

‘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.)

Ottley Wright: ‘PCC, like a family’
Ottley Wright — came to Laie in 1984 and worked at the PCC as a canoe tour and Laie Tour guide — at the Center’s 50th-anniversary reunion.

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.

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.

‘My miracle at the PCC’
PCC senior missionary Sister Gayle Bleak felt angelic help in the dark.