Amy Tolutau: an interview by Savani Aupiu, 29 November 2008: Pacific Islanders Oral History Project, U-1963

Transcript (40 pages) of an interview by Savani Aupiu with Amy Tolutau on 29 November 2008. Part of the Pacific Islanders Oral History Project, Everett Cooley Collection tape no. U-1963

Amy Tolutau, daughter of a Hawaiian and Filipino man and a white woman from Alaska, was born in Arizona and grew up in a small town, Wickenburg. The youngest of seven children, she remembers being the only Polynesian family in town, a matter of some novelty in a town whose ethnic makeup was almost exclusively Hispanic and white. Her father's family did not approve of his marriage, and Ms. Tolutau grew up far from Hawaii and Polynesian influence. She describes her father, who initially shunned all things from his previous life, gradually returning to some of his Pacific roots, but only later in her childhood. He was in Vietnam, but never speaks of it. After high school Ms. Tolutau attended BYU-Hawaii, and later married a Polynesian man. At the time of the interview she had two children, lived in Orem, Utah, and was attending Utah Valley University. She remembers her childhood in some detail, and describes her mother, an educator, and her possibly exaggerated tales of Alaskan life. The interview explores domestic roles and family life, including a strong expectation on her parents´ part that the children would attend college, somewhat of an anomaly in Wickenburg. Ms. Tolutau also discusses her position as a Polynesian person raised outside that culture and her relationship with it. Project: Pacific Islanders. Interviewer: Savani Aupiu