Polynesian Consumers' Co-op

---

The Polynesian Cultural Center in Lā'ie is a complicated and totally postmodern experience.

Out of the four major lū'aus on O'ahu, the PCC's seemed like a no-brainer. It's not the cheapest, but it isn't the most expensive either, and for the price you get a full day at a 42-acre living museum, a buffet and dinner show, and an evening auditorium show. They showcase six distinct Polynesian cultures in addition to Hawai'ian. When I was a kid, some friends of mine studied Polynesian dance, including Tahitian and Tongan, so I knew this was something I wanted to see and share with LG. Plus, I figured a dinner show would be pretty boring for a 7-year-old and the least we could do is wear her out with a full day of activities first.

After settling on PCC's lū'au, I made the mistake of reading online reviews. Much like bestsellers on Amazon, the ratings were plentiful and so widely varied as to be completely useless. I was able to glean several important facts from the reviews that weren't apparent from the brochures or website, but I haven't decided whether the foreknowledge was helpful or just gave me too many details to worry about.

I learned that the PCC is operated by the LDS Church. Our ex-Mormon friend Uncle Chuck has taught us that the LDS are good folks and nothing to be afraid of, although I was a little apprehensive about the possibility of being evangelized-at while we were there. Some reviewers insisted that the entire PCC is a high-pressure recruitment ploy; others insisted that the Mormon presence is not overbearing at all; and still others didn't mention it and didn't seem to have noticed. The best part was the visitors who positively came unglued when they discovered that only decaffeinated coffee, decaffeinated sodas and wholesome fruit smoothies are served with dinner! People, I'm from Seattle and even I do not believe that the absence of a few milligrams of the juice is enough to ruin an entire day. Get over it!

Next is the "authenticity" issue. I'm not too impressed by reviewers who ride out on giant flowerdy tour buses from the malls and hotels at Waikīkī and then insist that the PCC's cultural displays are 100% pure and authentic, although I'm also not too impressed by the hippie backpacker types who insist that it's totally fake. And vice versa. Because the opinions seem to be all over the map. It will surprise no one that I spent the entire day scrutinizing and analyzing and trying to figure out what I think about the authenticity of the presentations, and my conclusion is that I don't know. I was an anthropology major in college, and I still don't know enough to know whether the PCC's demonstrations and re-creations bear any resemblance to anything Polynesians would have worn, sang, or done before the missionaries came. I'm not even sure such a thing is knowable by anyone today, not even the descendants of those Polynesians. Although I must admit I was extremely amused by the cotton bloomers under the women's grass and leaf and beaded skirts!

What I can say, and I'm extremely pleasantly surprised to be able to say, is that I think the PCC's cultural education was respectful of the Polynesian cultures and traditions. The biggest indicator, to me, was that this LDS-run establishment made positive reference to native religions and religious practices, particularly reverence for ancestors, which I expected them to gloss over or distort. (There was a little bit of weirdness about the cannibalism issue; one guide said that it was abolished when the Christians arrived, but another one said it "continues to this day".)

Finally, there is the "Disneyfication" issue, also known as "A Scottish Evening in Grass Skirts". I think the PCC is guilty as charged, though only to a degree. Let's just say they have figured out what the Waikīkī bus tourists are looking for and are striving to give it to them. Every village has a live "show" featuring a professional "ambassador" and many aspects of these shows are clearly catering to the lowest common denominator with corny jokes and sight gags. I don't enjoy those, although I don't usually heap scorn upon them either (unless my brother's around). The problem is they muddy up the "authenticity". It is sometimes impossible to know whether a guide is sharing a legitimate factoid or setting up another stupid punchline. I can sympathize with the reviewers who didn't care for this, although some got genuinely irate and those folks really need to lighten up.

It seemed to me like it would be possible to avoid the shows and focus on the museum and the small cultural demonstrations. The poi guy, for example, was awesome and he vigorously defended the taste of his homemade poi over the manufactured imitators. He was right! Tongan spear, Tahitian dance, and Aotearoan poi balls (no relation) were all fun and down-to-earth.

This brings us to our biggest mistake, which was purchasing the Ambassador lū'au package with its guided tour of the museum. Several big problems for us with the guided tour. It's nothing but luck of the draw as to whether you get a really sharp, entertaining guide or an incredibly dull one. Ours were pretty dull. Next, the guided tour involves a tight itinerary based on attending the aforementioned live "shows" at each village, along with the equally lowest-common-denominator "canoe pageant". The guides' job ends up being to run you from one show to another and jockey for the best seats, which sometimes means no time at all to explore a village, but other times means a 15- to 20-minute period standing around doing nothing while waiting for another show. It's theoretically possible to ask for special stops, but you can't do that if you don't know what's there, and also you're often grouped with other visitors whose preferences may be completely different from yours. The couple who started the tour with us, bailed out after the first village to explore on their own. On the one hand, this was lucky because it allowed the tour guides to cater specifically to us. On the other hand, we all regretted that they had thought of it first and left us stuck with the guides. This brings us to the big issue with a guided tour, which is that I hate to be guided in a museum. Hell, I hate to have anyone anywhere near me in a museum (hi Drea!). I really like to investigate at my own pace and contemplate, and I'm perfectly capable of using a map of the center to decide on my own what's most important for me to see. Guided tours aren't for people like me, and I hope I've now learned to quit taking them. 😊

Yes, there are inducements to shop. I ignored (most of) them. Yes, there's a tram tour of the LDS Temple in Lā'ie. It's optional. I think it might actually have been interesting, but after our rushed pace all day it was good to skip it. No, there's really no way to make a buffet for 2,000 people feel anything but institutional, but an awful lot of reviewers seem to equate "steam table" with "bad food" (or worse, "inauthentic") and I don't think that is warranted either. I liked the food, except the mass-produced poi which tasted like wallpaper paste. Wonder what they did with the poi guy's stuff?

The spaghetti-strap tank tops et al. didn't bother me. I had heard that the Mormons "cover the dancers all up", which isn't really the case, at least, not unreasonably. Given that "authentic" dress is probably something along the lines of National Geographic (I hypothesize that the obviously Western pieces cover up areas of the body for which there isn't a traditional garment), and given that we had a seven-year-old in tow, I'll take tube tops and skorts over jiggly coconut shells. Besides, the PCC knows the difference between Tahitian dance and hula, and that goes a long way with me.

I guess my final conclusion is that a museum and show where culture is "put on" daily for the benefit of paying visitors has a built-in authenticity limit that can never be overcome and isn't really PCC's fault. Elaborate royal feasts in the Polynesian islands probably would have happened once a year or even once a generation, would have lasted for days or weeks. I don't know whether all of the Polynesians of the day would have been invited to such events, much less thousands of middle-class Western tourists. Imagine putting on a stage show of the coronation of Elizabeth II, every night, where commoners sit in the front row and stare and nosh on scones at intermission and take flash photos no matter how many times they are asked not to... and that is your educational representation of the entire culture of England. Throughput and pleasing the crowds and making money and realism and intimacy just aren't compatible, and for any museum the first three really aren't optional so it's the last two that have to suffer. I don't think that means we shouldn't have museums (living or otherwise), just that we need to accept their limitations.

We wanted to take advantage of the "free within three" tickets to go back and explore more thoroughly, which the PCC encourages, but our schedule just didn't allow. Stuff I would like to see: Marquesas, which we completely missed and which wasn't represented in any of the big shows, what is up with that?; Rapa Nui (a.k.a. Easter Island), because I'd like to see if they mention ecological damage to the island as the cause of its civilization's collapse as discussed in Jared Diamond's book; the "mission village", because I definitely want to see how they portray themselves; and the Lā'ie LDS Temple.

The PCC isn't for everyone, but I think it's a great experience when approached with the right attitude and a bit of self-awareness.

---

Photos

One fish, two fish
We made fishies out of coconut leaves.

Transparency
I love how clear this water is. Mokoli'i, a.k.a. Chinaman's hat, in the distance. We stopped here on the drive to the PCC.

Comments

[Angel]

PCC Insider
Your review holds completely true and this comes from an insider, a non-tourist. A came to Laie as a student and became one PCC's ambassador tour guides. The ambassador tour package for an western English speaking person is a waste. Which is what I did most of the time. I do speak another language and loved every chance I got to use this for a tour. I do believe that PCC can be for everyone though. You just need to know what your buying, just like a car. Many times the ambassador tour people were sold ticket packages they didn't really want. Some of the tour guides are fantastic and some aren't. I did this job for about 3 years and then on-call after that. That is a long time for a student job when many just do it for a semester or maybe a year. If I had been your tour guide, then we could have skipped most of the shows and been in the village huts. I was able to teach about the Tongan village alone for up to twenty minutes. (I took Tongan language and cultural classes). Also PCC now has village scheduling problems. They claim to be there for the students but over the last 13 years I see them cutting back the number of student workers, increasing ticket prices, and increasing full time administrative staff. They used to have village shows every half hour and the canoe show twice. And it was a good canoe show. The one they have now is no good and any time I have family or friends come, we skip it. It is too crowded and not interesting enough. As for the authenticity, it is pretty good and well balanced with the entertainment. The dancers wear various costumes from different periods in their history which include pre and post Christian contact but they don't explain everything in their demonstrations and if you have a guide who is any good, she could tell you that. (My husband was a dancer there for 5 years). The ironic thing is even though most of the workers actually come from those island, sometimes they don't know their own cultures or neighbor cultures. I have trained and knew more about the cultures than students who were from there. So you can't always know who to direct your questions to while there. Sadly, they are understaffed, student worker wise, and no longer staff the Marquesas village and now it falls under the overworked Tahitian workers to handle both areas. The Marquesas have a different language and dance in comparison to Tahiti. One other sorry note for loss of authenticity is that they no longer show the "Polynesian Odyssey" at their imax theater which had fairly authentic reenactments of Polynesian life. They show other imax movies which are seen in other theaters so there is no need to go to the imax at all now. Sorry for all this rambling but here is a summary of my advice: 1) If you speak English, don't get the ambassador tour guide 2) skip the canoe show, Laie tour, and imax: focus on the villages 3) ask questions as often as possible to the workers, perhaps ask the same question to more than one worker to see if there is a different answer If PCC gives you a survey, please suggest: 1)fix the village show schedule so shows are on every half hour making it possible to see all the shows in one day or having the option to pace yourself better to avoid running from show to show or standing around with nothing to do. 2) train all staff better in the Polynesian culture 3) offer the "Polynesian Odyssey" imax again 4) offer the canoe show twice to avoid overcrowding and shady seating for everyone

[GoVisitHawii]

Thorough Review
You certainly put a lot of thought into this review. I recently visited the Polynesian Cultural Center and thought it was very well done. At the end of the day, my husband and I could hardly get off to sleep even though we were jet lagged and sleep deprived. We kept talking about all the great things we had seen and learned at the PCC. Like you, we wanted to go back within the 3 days of visiting, but just weren't able to work it into our schedule. I wrote a review of the PCC on GoVisitHawaii.com and I described it as a feast for the eyes, ears, and mind. I think they do a great job of appealing to adults and children at the same time, which is a rare find.