Celebrating Pacific Heritage

Pacific Heritage Academy is a Utah-based Charter School for K-8 age students who learn Math, English, Science & heritages of the Pacific Islands & Latin America. They celebrate this mission through their House Program. Here's what they wrote:

To explain our House Names, I will need to first explain our school and what makes it so special. Our school's name is Pacific Heritage Academy. We carry the values of our Pacific origins and we bring those values into our everyday teaching. We teach the cultures of Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Maori, and Latin. We included Latin due to the location of our school and its demographics. With that being said, this explains why we went the route of why we choose our House Names.

Our House names were chosen very carefully with a lot of thought. Each of our Houses is named after a different part of the world. It is a landmark that goes with a legend/ myth. Fale Pioa represents the West of the Pacific, it represents the Samoan and Tongan Cultures.

Fale Pioa or Rainmaker Mountain is located in American Samoa. The mountain is very tall and keeps the clouds from moving. This creates an abundance of rainfall for the land. This area is known for its great soil and vegetation. So, this house represents new richness to the land and life.

Hale O 'Aumakua represents the North direction. This house represents the Hawaiian mythology of the spiritual animal or object that is personal to a family for generations. It could be a shark, tree, plant, fish, or bird. This house represents your family and the generations that have come before you.

Whare o te Ra represents the South. It originates from the Southern island of Aotearoa, or New Zealand. It means House in the Sun. It represents that all we do revolves around the Sun. The Sun represents life, time, and joy. It also links to the legend of the Demigod Maui and how he captured the sun to help the people have more time to do their work before night falls. This house represents all that is needed in life.

Last, we have House Casa Chichen Itza. This is our Latin house and represents the East. This House represents the city that the Mayan people built in Central America. This city is spiritual and sacred. Now, what is left of it is pyramids and temples. This House represents the perseverance and hard work, just like the people who built them and had their culture last through all time.