Seashell trumpets sounded as CES Commissioner W. Rolfe Kerr, over a dozen BYU-Hawaii and Polynesian Cultural Center leaders, community kupuna [elders] and residents, contractors, carvers, and others used traditional Hawaiian o'o or digging sticks on November 6 to ceremonially break ground in the PCC's Hawaiian village where a halau waa or learning compound will be constructed to permanently house the university's 57-foot twin-hulled sailing canoe, Iosepa.
Earlier, PCC President Von D. Orgill recognized special guests and members of the BYUH/PCC Presidents' Leadership Council (PLC) who attended the ceremony. "There have been many involved in this project that has been going on for a number of years," he said. "There have been a number of obstacles that have arisen, and yet there's been a spirit about this canoe we call Iosepa that has bound the hearts, spirit and minds of all who have been associated with it."
He added that BYU-Hawaii and the PCC have also "come even closer together...and as we look forward to the day we can dedicate it and open it up in June of next year, we know there's going to be a new phase in this special relationship that will be embodied by this special canoe and all that it means."
PCC's Hawaiian cultural expert Cy Bridges remarked that the groundbreaking was "the result of a need, a dream, a lot of dedicated hard work, and most of all the great love and overwhelming generosity of some very special people," he said, referring primarily to Mark Willes, chairman of the PCC's board of directors and PLC co-chair, and PCC board and PLC member Ira A. Fulton, who have donated most of the money for the Iosepa over the years and the new halau waa.
Bridges also said the canoe "takes me back to the days when my kupuna, my ancestors, first came on waa kaulua [twin-hulled] canoes much like Iosepa, that came upon these fair shores and called it home. Almost everything that will be displayed in this place are a great legacy and a monument to our kupuna and cultural traditions. For us, as island people, culture and tradition are very, very important."
William K. "Uncle Bill" Wallace III, Director of BYUH's Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian Language and Cultural Studies, thanked the master carvers — Tuione Pulotu and Kawika Eskaran — who created the canoe during a nine-month period in 2001. Both of them also participated in the ground breaking.
Wallace recounted that the canoe's name, Iosepa — Hawaiian for Joseph — came to him in a dream of his grandfather and other kupuna who emigrated in 1889 from Hawaii to a community of the same name in the high desert of Skull Valley, Utah. "As the dream ended, my grandfather grabbed me by the arm and he turned me around, and as I looked off into the distance I could see the canoe in its finished state with all of the rigging, the mast, the boom, the spar, and the sail was wide open; and it was standing there so beautiful in the glimmering sunlight."
"He simply said to me, like my family calls me, 'Sonny, the name of that canoe is to be Iosepa,' and my dream ended."
Wallace explained he also had a similar experience as they were considering building sites for Iosepa's home: "One day heading to my 10 o'clock class, I passed the Hawaiian village and I had to stop. It was at that time that I could hear, basically, Pop [Jubilee] Logan's voice. Like my grandpa, he said, 'Sonny, that canoe needs to be here in our village.' That was the beginning of our discussions." Logan, whose descendants live in Laie, was the first "chief" of the PCC's Hawaiian village.
"This is the right thing to do," Wallace continued. "I want to let Uncle Ira [Fulton] and President Willes know that the donations and the money that they gave is important to us...but it means we have responsibility and kuleana. I promise that we will do the best that we can to take care of the canoe and all the many blessings that have come our way because of your love and aloha."
"I just love this place," Fulton responded. "I've really gotten close to Uncle Bill, and I'm so proud to be involved here." He added that the decision to build the halau waa at the PCC brought him a lot of peace of mind.
Willes, who also served as a mission president in Hawaii, said the Iosepa's new home will be a "transforming project for the Polynesian Cultural Center, for BYU-Hawaii and for the Church. You have heard already how it has brought the university and the Polynesian Cultural Center closer together. You have heard again today, and often, how any time somebody comes in touch with the canoe, they feel something special. They know there's something special about the canoe. They know there's something special about those who worked on the canoe."
"It will make a large difference," he added, "and lives will be touched, we will all be changed, and it will all be for the better. We are grateful to be a very small part of that. We acknowledge the hand of the Lord in every blessing we have received, and count among our greatest blessings having you a part of our lives and being able to be a part of this special transforming project for the Polynesian Cultural Center."
Willes also pronounced the blessing on the halau waa site and all those who are working on the project.
— Photos: [top left] William K. "Uncle Bill" Wallace III, BYUH Hawaiian Studies program director; and [middle right]: PLC members and major contributors Mark Willes (left) and Ira A. Fulton congratulate each other after the groundbreaking — photos by Mike Foley; [immediately above]: PCC villagers welcome members of the official party with Polynesian protocol — photo by Eldon McIlwain; and [immediately below, left-right]: Uncle Bill Wallace; BYUH President Steven C. Wheelwright; Latter-day Saint Church Educational System Commissioner W. Rolfe Kerr; PCC President Von D. Orgill; and Mark Willes, chairman of the PCC Board of directors, co-chair of the BYUH/PCC PLC and a major contributor to the Iosepa project — photo by Monique Saenz.