When competitors of the 2023 Tahiti Fete asked the Polynesian Club of Fresno’s founder, Linda Kuma, what island Fresno is on following the group’s first-place win, she laughed.

“They heard we were from Fresno and they’re trying to figure out what island was near Fresno,” Kuma said. “We had a great laugh about that.”

In 2023, the club won one of the biggest dance competitions of its kind in the U.S., that year hosted in San Jose. Dancers and drummers came from all over the world to compete.

And, it was Fresno’s collective of performers who walked away with the biggest prize.

After a luau in 1971 for Kuma’s son’s first birthday — a big deal in Polynesian culture, giving thanks for the birth — attendees wanted more of the food and dancing at the celebration.

Kuma and her husband, Kolei Fiefononga Kuma, decided to start the group as a way for homesick islanders to come together and celebrate their culture.

The two of them, both Tongan, wanted a group for all Polynesians, regardless of what island they came from.

Now, the group has stretched to include all people, regardless of cultural heritage.

“People started asking us, ‘Can you bring your music and your dance here?’ ” Kuma said. “We just put together a small show, but we’ve gone from that to where now we can dance with hundreds of people.”

The next leg of the journey for the 300-plus dancers, drummers, and instructors at No Te Here O Te Hiro’a? A repeat victory in 2025, this time in Tahiti, they hope.

From 4 Years Old to 80, Polynesian Club Fits Every Generation

More immediate than the competition in Tahiti, Kuma’s daughter, Martha, and their host of other instructors are preparing the dancers for December, a busy month for the group. Aside from the regular catered events and dances at retirement homes, the Polynesian club holds their recitals and luaus that month.

That means coordinating the drummers with the dancers and making sure the costumes are just right to perform in front of the hundreds who come to watch. Kuma’s son, Leo, puts on fire knife demonstrations.

The group has classes for every generation.

“Right now, we have a grandmother dancing, her daughter who is in her 70s, I think, another daughter and the fifth generation,” Kuma said.

Michelle Umland, a teacher in Madera, now teaches the group’s “Sassy Ladies” group after joining the club three years ago. The group gears toward older women.

“And then on Tuesday nights, I’m with the younger crowd and I try to keep fit with the crowd, you can’t ask for a better place to be,” Owen said.

‘For the Love of the Culture’

For Polynesians, a name is important. A group can’t just name itself. When Kuma’s husband asked their teacher, the minister of culture in Tahiti, for a name, the teacher wanted to know who they were first.

“He told us when we asked for a name: ‘When I know who you are, I will give you a name,’ ” Kuma said.

After seeing their devotion and what the group brought to the Valley, he gave them the name No Te Here O Te Hiro’a, which means “For the Love of the Culture.”

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‘Every Dance Has Significant Meaning’

Dances are a form of storytelling in Polynesian culture.

“Every single dance that Polynesians do has significant meaning,” Kuma said. “They all tell a story and that’s why I think it’s easier for everybody to catch on and understand, because every song is telling a story.”

At the San Jose competition, their winning dance told the story of a woman’s lost love and her search for him. After a boy’s parents took him away to another island, the girl — portrayed by Kuma’s grandson’s fiancé — goes on a voyage in a drum to find him. Dancers dressed in blue to symbolize the ocean and men carried the lead in the drum, taking her throughout the stage.

Other dancers come out in black to signify the mourning of the woman’s lost love.

“She put herself in a barrel and went out into the water found her way to where he was, and it just tells that whole sadness,” Kuma said.

The group is already working on a special prop for next year’s competition.

Kuma Still Handmakes the Group’s Costumes

Kuma spends most of her day at the sewing machine. She keeps the stacks of fabric they have organized by culture. Kuma keeps every decoration, every accessory organized, with closets and rooms stacked floor to ceiling for costumes.

They have to be authentic and representative of each culture under the Polynesian umbrella. Maori dress can be very graphic, resembling their tattoos, Kuma says. The feathers they use in their capes are unique to that culture. The same goes for Tongans, Fijians, Samoans, and Hawaiians.

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A trip in 2023 to New Zealand took dancers and instructors to numerous villages to see what the people are doing.

“I watched every dance and I picked up a lot of things that I would like to do,” Kuma said. “We learn their songs, their dances, their music.”

With Kuma getting older, the group will soon be offering sewing classes to help make costumes for dancers.

“I love this group, and that’s probably the reason that at 75, I still am here working because I love what I’m able to do and what’s able to happen for the people in this group,” Kuma said. “Not only the children, but the adults.”