Family – Ohana – brought hundreds of people to Elk Grove Regional Park on Saturday to celebrate Polynesian culture and community during the first Pacific Islander Festival.
“When you come to these types of events, you get a lot of people in the Polynesian community, but you also get a lot of families who haven’t seen each other in a long time,” said Adam Imocelda of Elk Grove behind the booth. from his clothing company Hooked on Ohana.
Family indeed. His wife, Carmela, stood at the helm of her AK Candle Co. booth, next door.
“You come to an event like this and you see your cousin or your aunt, or someone you haven’t seen in a long time,” Imocelda said. “Ohana is really big at these events.”
It was big on a clear Saturday for the opening festival with Polynesian dancers, music and food throughout the day. The most important thing, however, was the coming together of cultures.
“We really wanted to raise awareness about the different Pacific Islander cultures,” said organizer Vanessa Moa of the Northern California Pacific Islander Organization.
Entertainment, workshops and more, from hula to clay works to mural making, were just some of the resources available Saturday to teach about the culture, she said.
“We have Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, Fiji – all kinds – to come and share with our community.”
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders form a small but steadily growing community in Elk Grove.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Elk Grove’s population that identified as Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders increased from 1.2% in 2010 to 1.5% in 2020 — about 2,600 people in a city of nearly 180,000 residents .
Salen Singh and his wife Raksha are two of the 2,600. The couple had lived in Elk Grove for 22 years and were dressed for the occasion on Saturday in the customary Fijian tapa.
“This is the first festival in Northern California. We are originally from the Fiji Islands, so we are happy to see that Elk Grove has something like this,” Salen Singh said.
“We wanted to bring the community together so we can share the culture through dance, music and art,” Herrera said. “Our goal is to provide resources and support for Pacific culture. Northern California hasn’t really had an event to raise awareness and really bring the culture together. Hopefully it will continue to grow.”
