DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17874290
title: Sacred as Cover for the Profane: Structural Exploitation in Mission-Driven Cultural Tourism

description: This dataset contains comprehensive financial documentation for the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), a $100M Mormon-owned cultural tourism operation in Laie, Hawaii, spanning 2009-2023. The dataset supports the paper "Sacred as Cover for the Profane: Financial Fragility as Evidence of Structural Exploitation in Mission-Driven Cultural Tourism," which analyzes how hierarchical Mormon governance structures prove incompatible with Polynesian relationality principles.

Dataset Contents:



IRS Form 990 filings (2009-2023): Complete annual tax returns providing detailed financial data including revenue, expenses, compensation, net assets, endowment management, grants, and governance structures

Form 990-T (2023): Unrelated business income tax return

Jupyter Notebook (PCC.ipynb): Python code for extracting, cleaning, and analyzing financial metrics across the 15-year period


Key Findings from Financial Analysis:

The dataset reveals a dramatic 2022-2023 trajectory demonstrating structural incompatibility between fair worker compensation and institutional viability under current governance:



2022 Extraction Period: $5.5M surplus achieved through worker wage suppression (13% below 2019 levels) despite visitor recovery to 74% of pre-pandemic volume

2023 Collapse: Institution reversed to $6.8M deficit when worker compensation normalized (+60% increase), despite visitor decline of only 3%—a $12.3M swing proving extraction essential to current model

Redistribution Failure: Net assets accumulated from $32.8M (2009) to $100.9M (2023) with minimal community redistribution (2022 grants: $281K = 0.25% of net assets)

Intergenerational Betrayal: Endowment depleted from $6.1M (2014) to $1.8M (2023), with 2023 withdrawal rates at unsustainable 40%


Research Applications:

This dataset enables scholars to:



Test Indigenous governance principles against quantifiable institutional performance

Analyze extraction mechanisms in mission-driven organizations serving Indigenous peoples

Compare Mormon institutional governance patterns across cultural contexts

Model alternative Indigenous governance structures (Māori tikanga, Hawaiian kānāwai, Samoan fa'amatai)

Examine relationships between governance structures and redistribution patterns


Methodological Contribution:

The paper demonstrates Indigenous governance frameworks (kuleana, mana, 'ohana, aloha 'āina, collective stewardship) as analytical tools for interrogating Western institutional structures, reversing conventional approaches that position Indigenous peoples as objects analyzed through Western business ethics frameworks.

Data Transparency:

All Form 990 documents are publicly available through the IRS and ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. This repository consolidates these documents with analytical code to facilitate reproducible research on Indigenous governance, institutional extraction, and decolonial alternatives in cultural tourism contexts.

Citation:

Brown, S. M. (2025). Sacred as Cover for the Profane: Structural Exploitation in Mission-Driven Cultural Tourism. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17867981

Keywords: Indigenous governance, Polynesian Cultural Center, Mormon institutions, cultural tourism, extraction, decolonial methodology, Form 990 analysis, financial transparency, Hawaiian sovereignty, worker compensation