Kap teo tafiti2/18/2024 ![]() Part of that legacy will surely be Tafiti’s amazing ability as a performer, and the way his personality makes simple moments so hilarious and memorable. And culture is a place to belong… something that brings peace, and makes things make sense.” The whole world is longing for a culture. So I want to leave a legacy of art, ideas, health, perpetuating culture. ![]() People fall off the Earth and they haven’t accomplished what they really wanted to do. “We’re all dying left and right, everywhere. There is so much going on today, so much, that people need time to take a break,” Tafiti said in a 2018 interview. Let’s head back to nature, to the beginning. To me, we need to get back to square one. “My whole purpose at the Center was to perpetuate culture, so now it’s coming back to… I want to sculpt things that are now disappearing. His dedication to spreading this knowledge, still strong after decades of work as a cultural ambassador, is a gift to the rest of us. In so many ways, Tafiti is the distillation of a very Polynesian kind of masculinity, melding traditional notions of strength and self-reliance with the innate spirituality of a community that embodies indigenous history and belief. A fine arts graduate from Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Tafiti likes to sculpt pottery and paint the Hawaiian landscape, capturing the essential beauty of a place that’s changed so much since the first Polynesian explorers landed there. While his online fan club remarks most about his physical talents and outward charm, it’s also wholesome to discover that Tafiti is deeply religious and inspired by the world to pursue all kinds of art with a gentle outlook. Of course, Tafiti is more than just a symbol of masculine competence with a flower in his hair. And beyond just performing fire-knife dances and scampering up 50-foot-tall coconut trees for the some 700,000 people who visit the center each year, Tafiti has become the Samoan heartthrob crush of the internet thanks to videos of his exploits going viral on YouTube and Reddit. He is the senior cultural advisor of the Polynesian Cultural Center, a 42-acre living museum that depicts the history of societies in Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji and beyond. This is Kap Te’o Tafiti, the entertainer and educator who has spread knowledge about the Pacific Islands for nearly 40 years. Perched on his head is a band woven from palm leaves, framing his salt-and-pepper hair. Odds are, he’s wearing nothing on that body save for a handsome lavalava and an ‘ulafala - a traditional Samoan wrap-skirt and a decorative necklace, intended to honor orators of high rank. In the tiny Hawaiian town of Laie, tucked along the famous North Shore of Oahu, awaits a man with a flower in his hair and charisma that drips off his thickly muscled body. They’re sweet, beautiful men we’ve never met, and we can’t wait to share the fully formed relationships we have with each of them. All this week, join us for a delightfully unwell celebration of our Internet Boyfriends.
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