Abigail Harper

According to Hawaiian tradition, when fishing one should never say the word “fish,” shared Seth Thompson, a senior from Mililani studying finance and economics. The belief is if you do, it will scare all the fish away. Instead, when going out with fishing gear in hand, Thompson said older locals will say “holoholo” or “take it easy,” and everyone will know what they mean.

In 2011, academics and authors David Pulsipher and Patrick Mason both attended an academic conference on the subject of the Mormon perspective on war and peace. Pulsipher said it was when they went out to get yogurt that he proposed writing a book about how the restored gospel supports peace efforts. The finished work “Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict” was the centerpiece of the Proclaim Peace Academic Conference held at BYU–Hawaii’s campus and sponsored by the Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

As Proclaim Peace conference attendees walked into the Aotearoa Village at the Polynesian Cultural Center on the last day of the three-day event, they witnessed a rare Maori ceremony that BYU–Hawaii alumnus Seamus Fitzgerald said he had only seen twice in this lifetime. After the attendees were seated, Fitzgerald and Aotearoa Village Manager Kim Makekau did a call and response oration in Maori. Conference attendees said there was a tangible spirit in the air that they felt.

Professors Chad Ford and David Whippy, of the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts, said it has been their dream for the past seven years to bring BYU–Hawaii peacebuilding alumni back to the campus to share how they are building peace around the globe.

’Otai (OH-tye) originated in Polynesia and is enjoyed across the region. This recipe is from the Polynesian Cultural Center's website.

Ricky, a man who has been sleeping on the sidewalk of Kulanui Street in Laie, has been around for years, said his family, although students said they only began noticing him last semester. He slept at a bus stop in Laie for a few weeks then moved to the wall outside of the BYU–Hawaii campus. Later, when Ricky was banned from the campus, he moved to Kulanui Street where he currently stays.

Junior Chenoa Francis said she felt “genuinely seen” when President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency called Black lives matter an “eternal truth” that should be universally accepted. Oaks made the statement on Oct. 27, 2020, at a devotional at BYU in Provo. The following year, in 2021, the celebration of the emancipation, or freedom, of slaves in the United States, a day known as “Juneteenth,” became a federal holiday, which Francis added also helped her to feel seen.