Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

Elder William Mark Waddoups: Called And Served With Aloha, Carol Helekunihi

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

The beautiful new Temple of the Latter-day Saints at Laie, Oahu, Hawaii territory, was dedicated on Thursday, Nov. 27, 1919, by President Heber ]. Grant. The services were attended by a number of the general authorities of the Church, and by many local officers and Saints, and the religious ceremonies and the dedicatory prayer delivered by President Grant were impressive and inspiring to the last degree. It was a solemn and in many other ways memorable occasion, when the past and the present were linked together in ceremonious religious observance, and another epoch in the history of temple building was …

The Search For Laie, Eric-Jon Keawe Marlowe

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Five Decades Of Marketing The Polynesian Cultural Center, Eric Workman, David Preece

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Learning How To Fly The Intersectionality Of Religion, Culture And Gender Of The Samoan Baha’I Community, Detmer Yens Kremer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Samoan Baha’i community balances their multiple identities in a society where they are a minority. Their cultural, religious and gender identities are all essential to their expressions as human beings, and this research aims to explore how Samoan Baha’i reconcile their multiplicity of identities. Information was gathered through a wide range of primary and secondary resources consisting of interviews, other forms of personal communications and participatory observation. An expansion of the notion of intersectionality in a Pacific context contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of cultural change, globalization and social justice. As the Baha’i religion does not believe in …

Lighting Young Lights: The Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program In Samoa, Nicholas Muccio

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) is a program inspired by the Baha’i Faith offered all around the world to those between the ages of 12 and 15. Due to its widespread implementation, it is likely that the practice of the program is in accordance with the cultural norms of the society in which it is practiced. The present study examines influences that the JYSEP has had on Samoan culture, and the influences that Samoan culture has had on the JYSEP. It has been found that the major values of the program are not in agreement with the traditional …

Mphs Flyer

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Mphs Program Byu-Hawaii

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Kaleohano 1860s, Dr. Ishmael Stagner

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

La‘Ie: 1865-1963: The Pre-Pcc Years, Dr. Ishmael Stagner

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

To: Tavita “David” Tausilinu’U Hannemann, Max E. Stanton

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Regarding: Max Stanton’s Experience at the Polynesian Cultural Center, 1964-1965

Altered and revised August 26, 2013 for presentation via Skype from my home in Portland, Oregon (where I was recovering from a recently a severely broken left ankle I had received on August 2, 20123, just five weeks before in Vancouver Island, in Canada.) This was my verbal presentation for the Mormon Pacific Historical Society –at the “Little Theatre” at BYU-Hawaii for the Joseph Napela Centre for Pacific Studies Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of the Polynesian Cultural Center, September 7, 2013. I wish to extend my sincerest thanks to Drs. Riley …

Pcc Night Show Update, Craig Ferre

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

In 1940 the original chapel in Laie, then 75 years old was being readied for a much need repainting. At the time it was common to remove old paint with a blow torch. This proved fatal to the old wooding structure as it subsequently burnt to the ground. I can imagine that the poor saint whose blow torch ignited the blaze felt terrible, and that he and the other workers were inconsolable with their loss. They could never have envisioned that this tragic act would give rise to one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions, and blessing beyond measure …

“School Thy Feelings”: The Critical Years At The Church College Of Hawaii And The Polynesian Cultural Center, 1955-1970, Alf Pratte

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Shortly after he was introduced to LDS president David O. McKay, Ishmael W. Stagner was invited to show McKay around the scrubby and waste-like North Shore area in 1955. It had not yet blossomed into the yet unfinished and unnamed cultural institution that in future decades would, in the words of Harold B. Lee, “…tie together the La’ie temple, the Church College of Hawaii, and the Polynesian Culture Center as the paramount activities of the Church.”1

Howard W. Hunter And The Development Of The Polynesian Culture Center, Chad Orton

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

While the vision behind the Polynesian Cultural Center may never have been realized without the efforts of Wendell B. Mendenhall, it is also likely that the center may never have celebrated fifty years without the work of Howard W. Hunter. In January 1965—fifteen months after the PCC opened its doors—Elder Hunter, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, received a letter from LDS Church President David O. McKay appointing him to replace Mendenhall as Chairman of the Board of the PCC, a position he would hold for more than eleven years. Elder Hunter’s service, coming as it did …

George Paele Mossman’S Lalani Village As A Model For The Polynesian Cultural Center, Riley Moffat

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

As we consider the history and legacy of the Polynesian Cultural Center I think we ought to recognize that while the Center is in many ways unique in its development and purpose it was not the first attempt to create a cultural village with the goal of displaying and preserving Hawaiian culture. That honor goes to George Paele Mossman and his Lalani Village. Indeed, the Lalani Village can and probably was viewed as the model for what was attempted in La‘ie with the PCC.

A Promised Land In The Diaspora: Christian Religion, Social Memory, And Identity Among Banabans In Fiji, Wolfgang Kempf

Pacific Studies

This article explores the evolving concept of diaspora, highlighting its departure from its original religious connotations to a broader framework encompassing migration, transnationalism, and identity. While religion has often been overlooked in contemporary diaspora studies, the article argues that Christian institutions play a pivotal role in shaping identity and social organization among Pacific Islanders living abroad. Focusing on diasporic Banabans in Fiji, the study examines how Christian discourses and biblical narratives—particularly the Exodus motif—have been appropriated to articulate a collective history of displacement and survival. The article situates Pacific migration within a historical and colonial context, demonstrating how religion functions …

Maui

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Maui is the second largest island in Hawaii and is basically two volcanoes, Haleakala and Puu Kukui with a connecting central valley in between. In the early years of the LDS mission in Hawaii the greatest success in terms of baptisms seems to have been on Maui. In 1853 out of 17,574 people on Maui over 1000 were LDS.

An Interview With Barnard Stewart Silver

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

An Interview with Barnard Stewart Silver (Great-grand nephew of George Q. Cannon)

Born March 9, 1933, currently living in Holliday, Utah

Lived in Lahaina, Hawaii from 1963-1966 as a research engineer in conjunction for the Pioneer Sugar Mill.

Interviewer: Shannon Lee Kanekoa

Date of Recorded Telephone Interview – April 22, 2012

SLK: “Brother Silver, will you tell us about your adventure when you decided to follow your great, great Uncle George Q. Cannon’s footsteps, over 150 years ago, and climb up through the Olowalu canyon and over the West Maui Mountains down into Wailuku?” BSS: “Gladly. After studying the history …

Lorenzo Snow Drowned In Lahaina Harbor (From W.W. Cluff’S Journal)

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

On the 29th of March (1864) we sailed for Lahaina, on the schooner Nettie Merrill, Captain Fisher, for the island of Maui, a distance of about ninety miles from Honolulu. On the morning of the 31st of March, we came to anchor about one mile from the mouth of the little harbor of Lahaina.

Lahaina

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaíi from 1820-1845. Government functions and the royal palace was at Mokuula, an island in a fish pond, now a park at the corner of Front Street and Shaw Street. From 1819 to after the U.S. Civil War Lahaina’s economy centered around the whaling industry. Whale ships would winter here and resupply and recuperate from whaling in the North Pacific. As whaling declined the Pioneer Sugar Mill was Lahaina’s economic engine from 1860 to 1999 along with a pineapple packing plant. Protestant missionaries from the ABCFM were invited to establish a mission …

Waikapu

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

It was also at Waikapu, that the LDS doctrine that the island peoples are descendants of Abraham through Lehi and are heirs to all the blessings of Abraham and his posterity was revealed through Cannon. This doctrine has been accepted by Latter-day Saints ever since, but the fact that had its pronouncement through him was not known until Cannon explained this to the Saints at Waikapu on December 28, 1900. President Samuel Woolley wrote that President Cannon “told them they were of the seed of Abraham and he knew it because the Lord told him so at Lahaina.”1 Waikapu is …

Pulehu

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Pulehu Chapel, Pepper Tree and Kula Monument On the slopes of Haleakala is the community of Pulehu. Located there is a small wooden chapel which is probably the oldest LDS chapel in Hawaii. This little chapel is near where some of the first baptisms in Hawaii took place. “This property came into the hands of the Church when Kiki the daughter of Kaala, through a proclamation dated July 16, 1903 conveyed two acres of a former three acre parcel to the Church ‘for . . .the good works and advancement of the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus on this …

The Beginnings Of The International Teacher Education Program (Itep) In The Church Schools Of The South Pacific, Dennis A. Wright

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints1 sponsors elementary and secondary schools for students in Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Kiribati. As a support for the teachers and administrators in these schools, the Church provides in-service and professional development opportunities through the International Teacher Education Program (ITEP). This service is currently provided through Church service missionaries appointed because of their professional credentials in teacher education.2 As adjunct faculty in the School of Education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUH)3, ITEP missionaries teach accredited classes from the BYUH teacher education curriculum. As a result, faculty members in the Church schools have the …

Lorenzo Snow At Lahaina 1864

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Tuesday, March 29. Elders Ezra T. Benson, Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith, William W. Cluff and Alma L. Smith sailed from Honolulu on the Schooner “Nettie Merrill”, Captain Fisher, for Lahaina, on the Island of Maui, a distance of ninety miles from Honolulu.

Afterward

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

During the 2012 MPHS conference on Lanai and Maui a couple of questions arose that weren’t answered at the time, but apparently later have been.

Lanai

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Lanai is the sixth largest island and is one of the driest so only a few thousand Hawaiians ever called it home. By the time the LDS Church attempted to establish a gathering place in Palawai Basin there were only 600 Hawaiians on the island. Andrew Jenson listed only 14 members out of 105 inhabitants on Lanai in 1895.

Wailuku

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Two days after Cannon, Bigler, and Keeler arrived in Maui, they began studying the language. Without formal language instruction, Cannon appealed to the Lord in prayer and fasting for the gift of tongues.1 The missionary efforts of George Q. Cannon were the first to bear significant fruit in the Hawaiian Islands. It is recorded that on March 4, 1851, Cannon left his companions in Lahaina and made his way in bad weather to Wailuku. On his way to Wailuku, Cannon felt that “he was to meet someone who would be interested in his message and who would be willing to …

Joseph F. Smith’S 1864 Mission To Hawaii: Leading A Reformation, Eric Marlowe, Isileli Kongaika

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

At age twenty-five, Joseph F. Smith was part of two of the more recognizable events in Hawaiian Church history: the near accidental drowning of Lorenzo Snow and the excommunication of Walter Murray Gibson. However, these are only two incidents in a unique eight-month mission Joseph F. served to the Hawaiian Islands (then Sandwich Islands) in 1864.

Palawai

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Because the law in Hawaii did not allow Hawaiian converts to migrate to Zion, Brigham Young counseled the missionaries to locate a gathering place in Hawaii. On September 28, 1853, Francis A. Hammond discovered a possible gathering place for the LDS while traveling on the island of Lanai. The spot Hammond chose was the Palawai Basin. He described it as: “lying at the foot of the large mountain on the east and extending toward a high ridge on the west, which enclosed completely a large tract of good land, perhaps 5,000 acres of which was in full view.” Further, Hammond …

Olowalu

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

onathan Napela was born in Honokohau Valley September 11, 1813 but grew up in Olowalu before attending Lahainaluna Seminary. At that time several hundred Hawaiians farmed kalo on the alluvial fan of Olowalu. Napela’s parents died here in the 1853 smallpox epidemic. In ancient times there existed a footpath up Olowalu stream and over the 3500 foot pali into Iao Valley. It was very difficult and although there is a tradition Cannon used it, the path had pretty much been abandoned by 1851 so Cannon would more likely have walked around the north end of the island or continued on …

Interview With Takeo Taniguchi, Shannon Kanekoa

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

Can you tell us your full name? Takeo Taniguchi

Bro. Taniguchi, where were you born and raised? I was born in Lahaina, Maui. Year September 9, 1923. Went to Honokowai School, Kam III (third) School and Lahainaluna. Graduated June 1942 from Lahainaluna.