Advice on work function - Polynesian/Hawaiian

This week is out diversity week at work and the committee put me in charge of Hawaiian/Polynesian. The committee leader wants me and this other guy to wear leis, flip flops, etc and pass out macadamia nut cookies. She wants me to decorate the table but with crappy party city pineapples, ugly plastic tiki stuff, etc.

My question is, should I rebel (and watch her faint) and bring masks, tapa cloth, etc instead? That's what I want to do but she has her opinion of what "Hawaiian" should look like and I would rather bring some tiki, even if it's ugly tiki, than get banned and be forced to wear the kangaroo costume for Australia (sad, I know).

Opinions please!

"The committee leader wants me and this other guy to wear leis, flip flops, etc and pass out macadamia nut cookies."

And will the Chinese representitive be standing behind a laundry laden ironing board passing out fortune cookies, next to the Mexico table with bowls of Chili Cheese Fritos guarded by a Taco Bell chihuahua?

When it comes to Tiki I don't really care if it's a caricature of a culture or a landlocked idea of tropical bliss, I look at it like American style Chinese food. But if true Polynesian culture is to be represented one should make an attempt to be genuine. Do what you know to be right. If there's an actual concern about your work environment you could do a comparison between popular notions of Polynesia (anything you can buy at Party City) and realities of the history/culture.

On the other hand, if it's the sort of place where they just like the idea of having a "diversity week" and could really give a rip about authenticity (and no one would be interested anyway) bring the plastic leis and cookies and a thermos of Mai Tais.

Either way it seems OK to wear flip-flops.

Well what's the purpose of your workplace's diversity week and how secure is your job? :)

If it's just a half-assed exercise in mandatory fun, I'd take the passive aggressive route and purposefully create the most absurdly non-Polynesian "party city luau aisle" table I could.

But if the diversity week is a serious event and other tables are going to be manned by folks earnestly trying to showcase their backgrounds, then don't allow your company to short shrift Polynesia / Hawaii with that plastic crap. And if the committee has a problem, scowl and ask em, "Wot, you got beef?"

I'm one of the most un-PC people I know, but even I would be offended if I went to a cultural affair saw Hawaii represented by plastic technicolor tikis and plastic leis.

G'day.

sounds like a lame assed effort if the Aussie contingent wears a kangaroo suit - we dont all look like that, some of us have legs and arms and stuff - like people tend to have. But we do say g'day, and mate in everday circumstances.

Have a little fun but dont go too overboard, something between long pork and what management is suggesting? A few Mai Tais and everyone will be your fan. Well, maybe not the boss.

Go the middle road. Not too disrepectful, but have a little fun.

Tell the loser in the kangaroo suit that your mate in Australia is appalled at their insensitive stereotyping, mate. Crikey, gotta go, a dingoes got my baby. Strewth and all that shit!

Oh, man, back when I was working in cubicle-land I hated these "social" functions. The "we come to work because we love each other, not because of the money" functions. And as much as I love and admire women, why is it that these functions are always only organized by females?

It got to the point where I'd call in sick for those days, and when they abolished sick days I'd even burn a personal day to avoid the horribleness.

Wear flip flops and hand out cookies. Oh, ugh. I feel for you. My inclination would be to show up for work that day with a tiki mask on my face and a .45 in my hand.

Don't get on the ship! Don't get on the ship!

[ Edited by: Satan's Sin on 2005-05-10 07:57 ]

Here's my update....I decided that I would put up a paper pineapple centerpiece...BUT I'm bringing some Hawaiian music and a giant 3.5 ft tiki god mask for the table, plus a volcano painting that my fiancee did for me. I will wear my flip flops and sarong, but I'm reformatting the "ingredients card" with a tribal border.

I hate this work crap but hey, at least I get to spend some quality time with my tiki.

At least my table is going to be mostly respectable....the Mexican table has a sombero and catcus from Big Lots.....

Bill Lumbergh: "Oh, and next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day... so, you know, if you want to you can go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans."

http://www.moviesounds.com/office/hawaiian.wav

Overall, this thing went well. I had a lot of compliments on the tiki mask, as well as people who didn't know that it was called tiki asking questions. I had some printed pictures from the Oceanic Arts book, which was very popular. I also played an Israel Kamakawiwo`ole cd which everyone seemed to love :)

If I get pictures, I'll post them (maybe).

Good to know it went well. Bring on the pics!

They used to try and organise team building excercises at a firm i used to work for, one of them was going paintballing.
For this they had also invited along a lot of our clients, nethertheless being a creative the idea of spending part of my day with a bunch of Ad execs and poncy clients wasn't fun.
Me and the only other guy at work I got on with decided to go dressed as Mexican bandits, much to the embarassment of everyone else, incl the Chairman, directors and others who were all dressed in their finest cammo gear, freshly brought from the army supply store.
Needless to say, our company pussy footed around the clients, only shooting each other in case they upset someone important.
Me and my mate went all out in our costumes, specially targetting high ranking colleagues and clients, winning the day and rubbing it in the faces of everyone.
We got a huge dressing down the following day from the bosses, but we also never got asked on another team building day again!

Cheekytiki-

That was hilarious!! Reminds me of Bill Cosby's great bit on "Chocolate cake for breakfast." (Wife asks him to feed the kids which he doesn't want to do, kids talk him into letting them eat chocolate cake, wife blows up, telling him he'll never be trusted to feed them again...which is what he wanted in the first place, natch :wink: )

Any fotos of you as a Mexican bandito?

On 2005-05-10 06:34, hewey wrote:
Crikey, gotta go, a dingoes got my baby. Strewth and all that shit!

HAHAHAHAHA! Can't believe I just noticed this post! Priceless!
I do hope the Aussie table had lots of Foster's bee-yah and shrimp on the barbie, and everyone had a big knife, and a snakeskin band and at least a dozen corks on their hats.

Oh! I completely forgot the best part...they had "Cafe Vienna" cookies representing Australia....I had to tell her AFTER the programs had been printed that there was a difference between Australia and Austria.

Poor guy dressed as Crocodile Dundee had to pass out Vienna cookies all day.

On 2005-05-12 13:10, Pomaika i wrote:
Overall, this thing went well. I had a lot of compliments on the tiki mask, as well as people who didn't know that it was called tiki asking questions. I had some printed pictures from the Oceanic Arts book, which was very popular. I also played an Israel Kamakawiwo`ole cd which everyone seemed to love :)

Good musical choice. IZ is much more approrpriate than Don Ho or Best loved luau favorites.

Displaying tiki is a much better pre-contact historical context than passing out cheap plastic leis - which borders on stereotypical and offers little of culture.

Thats not a cookie, this is a cookie!

Haha mexican bandits!