As we disembarked the plane, the humidity hit us like a wave. When we walked into the airport
we were welcomed by a ukulele quartet playing songs in the traditional style. The whole feel of the airports was very relaxed; the customs people just waved the pilots and flight attendants through, sometimes giving them a high five. The customs officers were friendly to us and everything was relaxed and comfortable.We knew that some of our Tahitian family would be meeting us at the airport, but we were unprepared for our greeting. “Our” Tahitian family are the Tahiata’s – my mother’s adopted family from when she was doing her PhD research here 16 years ago. The whole three generations of the family were there: Paulette and Gre, their children, and some grandchildren. We were hung with lei of Tiare and given enthusiastic hugs and kisses (one on each cheek). Paulette had strung the lei with flowers from own garden. We were driven to where we were staying “Pension de la Plage” and everyone except me stayed up late visiting. I went to sleep instead because Je n’ai pas dormi dans l’avion (I did not sleep on the plane).
French Polynesia is a French colony.
We are visiting two groups of islands in French Polynesia, the Tuamotu and the Society Islands.
The two islands we are spending time on first, Tahiti and Mo’orea, are in the Society Islands. Fakarava, where we will be going afterwards is in the Tuamotu Islands. Tahiti and Mo’orea are “high islands” – with tall, cloud shrouded mountains and deep fertile valleys: the remnants of the volcanic crater and its caldera. The Tuamotus are atolls, meaning they are made of coral built up on old, extinct, eroded volcanoes. Unlike the Society Islands, they are low and flat because the volcanoes have been eroded away and the land has subsided into the ocean.The native people here are the Maohi. 3500 years ago the people who would become the Polynesians set out from South-East Asia with an urge to explore the world. They traveled east in their canoes bringing the pig, the chicken, dog, various tree and other crops, and their seafaring technology to uninhabited islands. On the way they stopped and settled in the Society Islands about 1400 years ago. We know that because my mum found the earliest coconuts. When they arrived, they planted crops and made settlements. We now know they reached South America and traded technologies. The Polynesians turned around and brought the sweat potato back with them.
The Maohi culture has been repressed by waves of colonization leading to the present French control. Instead of learning the Tahitian language and culture in schools, French culture and history is taught. The first death toll of a culture is the loss of its language, and most of the younger generation here cannot speak their language. Fortunately, the Tahitian language is now beginning to be taught in the schools and there has been a move towards more independence from France in recent years. It doesn’t seem fair to me that that the French dominate an entirely separate culture. I guess this is the legacy of colonialism
The islands here are beautiful. The extinct volcanoes rise sharply out of the ocean to end with their heads in the clouds. The ridges make a dramatic silhouette against the sky. The shoulders of the mountains are covered in a dense, green blanket. The green makes a sharp contrast with the bright aquamarine lagoon waters. The lagoon ends at the white breakwater that marks the edge of the barrier reef. The rich, deep blue, open ocean water continues on until the ocean meets the sky.
