What does it look like when a museum artifact leaves its display case and becomes the focal point of a live event?
On March 28, 2026, more than 500 people found out when they witnessed a century-old kumete, a traditional Tongan kava bowl, come off its museum pedestal and become the centerpiece of a traditional kava ceremony held at Brigham Young University.
This particular kumete has a unique story. Emil Otto Friedrich Wolfgramm was a 19-year-old German blacksmith who immigrated to Tonga in the 19th century. He embraced Tonga and formed a close relationship with King Taufa'ahau Tupou II, who gifted him the kumete as a gesture of gratitude. The kumete passed through generations of the Wolfgramm family before finding its way into the care of the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at BYU in 1998, where it has been on display since April 2025.
Bringing the Kumete to Life
The live event, titled “Honoring the Principles of Tonga,” was organized by Lynette Finau, BYU anthropology professor and Wolfgramm descendant; in collaboration with Maya Watkins, anthropology graduate student and museum exhibitions coordinator; Michael Searcy, chair of the Anthropology Department; and Paul Stavast, museum director. Finau said, “Our goal was to give life to a shared ancestral collection item. It's a unique way to gather family, community, and education together. It's anthropology in action.” Hosting a kava ceremony was an ideal way to demonstrate that the culture of an artifact is a living culture — not something frozen behind glass. Tonga’s culture is profoundly shaped by four core principles that define social conduct and interpersonal relationships: respect, humility, nurturing relationships, and sharing. The kava ceremony symbolically binds and strengthens those principles.
Museum students played a key role in bringing the exhibit to life. Before the event, the students carefully removed the kumete from its display case to conduct conservation testing and ensure it could still hold liquid. They transported the kumete to the Wilkinson Student Center, where attendees gathered to witness a ceremony that stretched across generations, oceans, and more than a century of history.
The Event
The ceremony unfolded with carefully selected elements, beginning with classical Tongan music to set the tone and bring the spirit of the past into the room. Watkins welcomed guests and introduced the speakers. Finau began by telling the story of how her great-great-grandfather Wolfgramm received the kumete and its journey to America. She then recounted a personal family experience that happened in 1976 when Spencer W. Kimball, who at the time was President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited Tonga. President Kimball told Finau’s aunt that “culture is one of God's ways of organizing His people.” Finau also drew on teachings of Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who has said that “our ancestors deserve to be remembered” and that “as we discover our story, we connect, we belong, we become.”
The telling of Emil Otto Wolfgramm's story was followed by the kava ritual itself — a highly ordered ceremony in which participants receive kava as part of a formal cultural and spiritual observance, symbolic of reaffirming obligations, responsibility, and social hierarchy within family and community. It is the most important institution in Tongan society. During the ceremony, Finau felt especially close to her great-great-grandfather “to his spirit, to his aspirations, and to his love for his children in his newfound country and culture, honoring the principles of Tonga. It was a beautiful reunion, combined with the kava ceremony as a cultural tool to reunite and unify the family,” she said.
The ceremony's crowning moment was the Milolua, performed as a lakalaka — a large, choreographed group performance — by more than 80 BYU students who came together four months earlier to begin learning this sacred dance, taught by community instructors. The Milolua honored the cultural importance of the kava ceremony by showcasing the formalized traditional methods of mixing and wringing kava through music and dance movements. Finau emphasized the students' experience doing and reflecting. "It was the first time students learned the literary device of Tongan honorific and elegant language and singing which are critical requirements to learning the Milolua," she said.
Closing remarks were delivered by two honored guests of Tongan descent: Elder Vaiangina Sikahema, a General Authority Seventy of the Church, BYU football alumnus, and the first Tongan ever to play in the NFL, and Kalani Sitake, current head football coach for BYU. “Their visibility and messages were truly inspiring and empowering,” Finau said.
Living Exhibits
The event also honored the museum’s director, Paul Stavast, who represented BYU and its students as the kumete’s new caretakers. Finau explained that “while many museums have static repositories, our broader mission is to shift away from static exhibits toward interactive experiences that connect collection items with the families and communities they came from.” The kumete was transformed into an active, engaging display, merging education and preservation to serve the public.
The turnout was a testament to what Finau, Searcy, and Stavast had set out to do: transform a static artifact into a living, communal experience. Originally planned for 300 guests, the event closed RSVPs two days early when projections surpassed 500. The Garden Court in the Wilkinson Student Center filled beyond capacity with latecomers gathering outside the room and along the third floor above. “The attendance was incredibly surprising, but telling of what museum work can do,” Finau said.
'Ofa Atu
For Watkins, the day's most lasting moment came after the ceremony. While helping clean up, Finau introduced her to a group of Tongan community members who had been involved in the dancing and other elements of the ceremony. They praised her pronunciation of Tongan words throughout the program — particularly 'Ofa atu, meaning “I love you.” Then one woman looked her in the eyes and said, “You are Tongan now. Welcome to the family. 'Ofa atu.”
“In that moment, I felt such a deep connection and love for this woman, but also all the members of my human family,” Watkins said.
Finau echoed that sentiment. “You didn't have to be a member of the Wolfgramm family to feel the transformative, life-changing resilience of ancestors in your life,” she said.
It was, perhaps, exactly what the kumete had always been meant to do — connect and gather people, uncover shared lineages, bridge the distance between past and present, and remind us that culture is never truly behind glass. It is alive, carried forward by the communities who tend it.
Discover more exhibits, programs, and events at the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures.