1991 VHS • Welcome to Polynesia! 60 FPS

About

A 1991 promotional and documentary video for the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in partnership with BYU Hawaii. The tape opens with narrated footage of Oahu covering Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head, the 1200-foot Nuuanu Pali cliffs, the North Shore surfing, Hanauma Bay snorkeling, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, before transitioning to the Cultural Center itself.

The center is presented as a 42-acre living museum staffed largely by BYU Hawaii students from Pacific Island nations. A Samoan host named Mika leads the first village segment, demonstrating coconut husking and fire-making, explaining that in Samoa men do all the cooking. Subsequent village segments cover Maori New Zealand, where demonstrations include the tiraku stick game, poi ball swinging, and a welcome ceremony involving a token placed on the ground; the Fiji village, covering the Fijian bamboo fire dance, chief's house construction traditions, and the sacred white kauri shell; the Hawaii village, with a detailed poi-pounding demonstration explaining that Hawaiians were the only Polynesians to pound taro into dough form; the Marquesas village, where performers are described as the most extensively tattooed Polynesians; the French Polynesia and Tahiti village, teaching the tamure hip-shake dance for women and the paoti knee-knock for men; and the Tonga village, the last remaining kingdom in the South Pacific, where activities include the Tongan waffle game and coconut-leaf weaving. The tape also covers the center's IMAX theater showing the film Polynesian Odyssey, the dining facilities, the marketplace, and the closing evening performance Mana: The Spirit of Our People.

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

The Vista Group®

Language

English

Subtitles

English (automatic)

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed