The Polynesian Cultural Center has an origin story most visitors don't expect. In 1865, Brigham Young wrote to Kamehameha V requesting permission to establish an agricultural colony at Lāʻie. The request was granted.

The mission that followed became the foundation for this 42-acre living museum, opened in 1963 and owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Students from the adjacent BYU–Hawaiʻi campus staff much of the centre, working off tuition in the village displays and shows. The result is seven recreated villages representing Hawaiʻi, Fiji, Aotearoa, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Rapa Nui. One thing notably absent: Mai Tais.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours drive through Lāʻie on their way around Oʻahu's North Shore, placing the centre within the longer story of Mormon settlement in Polynesia and the communities that shaped this stretch of coastline.