Historical/Cultural Context
Pacific Islanders in Utah
The story of Utah history is deeply linked with the Pacific Islands. LDS missionaries were in contact with native Pacific Islanders beginning in the 1850s. A large group of Polynesians, mostly of Hawaiian descent, established a Mormon colony named Iosepa in Utah’s west desert in 1899. Today, Utah’s per-capita number of residents with Pacific Islander heritage is the highest in the continental United States with significant populations of Tongans, Samoans, and New Zealanders all making their home in the Beehive State. Every year the diversity of Utah’s Pacific Islander community continues to increase; the state is now home to many families from Micronesia and Fiji as well as other small island chains.
Transmission of Traditions across Islands and Oceans
The transmission of knowledge in the Pacific is intrinsically linked to patterns of migration throughout the islands. Explorers carried skills and stories from community to community, and each settled group introduced different interpretations and innovations. Pacific Islander material culture is deeply connected to the community in which it is made as many individuals have a hand in production. Pacific Islander cultures in diaspora continue to develop and solidify community bonds through the arts, maintaining a connection to their ancestry and heritage through modern expressions of traditional practices.