Members of students associations invited all students to join them, teaching them the significance of dances, making Culture Night unified and showing the unique diversity of BYU-Hawaii. The two-day Culture Night event brought audience members to their feet at the Cannon Activities Center as it concluded on Saturday, March 28. The Korean Association opened the second night with the traditional arirang song and transitioned to a synchronized presentation of tae kwon do, ending with bouncing to a fast-paced pop song. The Korean Association made sure to include those not from Korea and make them feel welcome. “I felt included because they always told instructions in Korean, and they would also translate into English,” said Desiree Moore, a senior from Utah studying elementary education. “They would purposely plan stuff that would help us understand, and instead of being exclusive, they told us to bring our friends.”Each association prepared from the beginning of the semester to have a dance to represent their culture. “It’s what defines us as Fijians. It’s our culture,” said Daniel Ravia, a junior from Fiji studying exercise and sports science, about the dance. “One thing we love to do is share our culture with other people.” Fiji and Hong Kong followed Korea. Members of the Japanese Association shared their culture through a live action Super Smash Brothers battle, highlighting Pokémon, Mario Kart and other games the country is famous for creating. They also worked with each other to make a human tower. “The tower is what we do in elementary school, which is why it was easy for us,” said Sumie Nagatani, a freshman studying hospitality and tourism management from Japan. American Sign Language (ASL) presented the importance of its culture through hand-signing. Natalie DeMartini, a graduate in psychology from California, who danced with ASL, said, “It’s a great culture and we want to show how great deaf people are. The only way for the culture to grow is for hearing people to learn sign language.”Korean, Fiji, Hong Kong, Japan, Filipino, American Sign Language, Indonesia, Kiribati, Tahiti, New Zealand, Thailand, Hip-Hop clubs performed on March 28, with Tonga ending the show, drawing screams of excitement from the audience.Mele Fiefa, a junior from Tonga studying elementary education, said about everybody performing, “Even though we are a different color, we are still the same. You learn to respect.”Uploaded April 2, 2015
Writer: Rachel Reed
