Huiariki Watene: “It all started here”
Huiariki “Riki” Wātene, a Maori from Hastings, New Zealand, parlayed his PCC experience into a career back home.
Huiariki “Riki” Wātene, a Maori from Hastings, New Zealand, parlayed his PCC experience into a career back home.
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.
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 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.)
Vi’iga Fuimaono Jr. worked his way through college as a Polynesian Cultural Center’s canoe guide, and has held a number of important positions since in Samoa.
Malolo grew up in a small village on the Samoan island of Savai’i, and went to school in the capital and near Wellington, New Zealand, before attending BYU–Hawaii and working at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
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.
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.
All rights reserved.
© 2023 Polynesian Cultural Center