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French Polynesia–History

 

French Polynesia is an island nation composed of five main groups of islands, from west to east: the Society Islands, the Australs, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas and the Gambier Archipelago. Here is a map. The Marquesas were the first islands in French
Polynesia to be colonized, in about 300 A.D., the Society Islands in about 800 A.D., and the other, smaller island groups at other points in between.

French Polynesia is considered an overseas collectivity of France, a status that grants it a
certain sense of autonomy, such as the ability to essentially choose its own leaders, though France technically has the last word on most issues, including in the court system, education and national defense. As we’ll see below, not all French Polynesians want to maintain the status quo.

Let’s take a tour of the French Polynesian islands:

THE SOCIETY ISLANDS:
The Society Islands are composed of two distinct island groups: the Windward Islands, including Tahiti, and the Leeward Islands. Tahiti is the largest, most populous and most politically central island in the Society Islands, and in fact in all of French Polynesia. Tahiti is a volcanic island that has a mountainous center surrounded by coral reefs. Most of the approximately 175,000 people (2007 estimate) who live on Tahiti live in the capital city of Papetee. Of the citizens of Papette, about 70% are Polynesian while the rest are European, Chinese or Tahitians of mixed European/Polynesian descent known as “Demis.”

The first inhabitants of Tahiti were Polynesians who arrived between about 300 and 800 CE, having traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific from island groups like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. As on many Polynesian islands, Tahitian society is organized based upon a complex interplay of chiefdoms, clans and the power dynamics between them. In Tahiti, clan leaders were powerful but not all-powerful; they generally made decisions in consultation with general assemblies. Tahitian culture had a strong oral tradition involving an extensive mythology based on tales about various gods, as well as extensive traditions surrounding tattooing and navigation. Most public spiritual ceremonies took place in “marae,” which were sacred places of worship made of raised stone platforms. People prayed to gods in marae, enthroned leaders, prepared for war, celebrated births and conducted funerals.

The First European to visit Tahiti was British sea captain Samuel Wallis who appeared in 1767 and claimed it for England, followed soon thereafter by French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who not only claimed Tahiti for the French, but published accounts of his travels in which he described Tahiti as a utopian paradise populated by “noble savages,” far away from the corrupting influence of civilization. Missionaries from the London Missionary Society arrived in in 1797 and claimed Tahiti for Christianity.

In 1788, perhaps in response to the European incursion, this fine fellow—King PÅmare I, also known as Otou–united the various Tahitian clans into the Kingdom of Tahiti. He and his descendants ultimately came to exert influence over all of the island groups that compose French Polynesia.

Despite the solidifying of a Tahitian kingdom the people of Tahiti faced hard times in the early days of European exploration. Not only did Tahitians first become acquainted with guns and alcohol, but a substantial proportion of Tahitians fell victim to European-introduced diseases such as typhus, smallpox and influenza. The population fell from tens of thousand to about 6,000 in the 1800s.

The PÅmare kingdom passed from father to son (PÅmare II), then father to his 18 month old son (PÅmare III) who officially held the throne until he passed away at the age of six. The throne then went to his 14 year old sister, PÅmare IV, who ruled Tahiti for 50 years (1827-1877). PÅmare IV fought French intervention for almost two decades but in 1843 finally agreed to administer the French protectorate. In 1880 the French forced her son, PÅmare V, to abdicate the throne. In 1946 France made all of French Polynesia an “overseas territory” and granted Tahitians French citizenship. In 2003 French Polynesia became an “overseas collectivity” and in 2004 it transformed into “an overseas country.” (What’s the difference? Wikipedia tells us.)

INDEPENDENCE OR BUST? TEMARU, FLOSSE, SANG and THE NEXT TAHITIAN KING:

Should Tahiti remain an official part of France or should it become independent? Should Tahiti bring back the king? Over the last several decades debates over the question of independence have been central to Tahitian politics. Since 2004 the presidency of French Polynesia has switched hands several times between pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru, members of the pro-France, pro-Tahitian autonomy Tahoera’a Huiraatira party, led by long-term French Polynesian president Gaston Flosse, and former Tahoera’a Huiraatira leader, Tong Sang, who fell out of favor with his party, and even fell victim to a coalition formed by Temaru and Flosse. Most every time power switched hands a no-confidence vote would follow, and then new elections. (Since 2004 Temaru has been president of French Polynesia five times.) France has annulled the results of French Polynesian elections, censured the Temaru governments and even sent riot police to Tahiti “to prevent the ‘dismemberment of the republic.'” In the midst of this continued confusion, Tauatomo Mairau, a descendant of the PÅmare kings, has tried to restore the Tahitian monarchy via the French Polynesian courts. In 1993 the French government disclosed that it had illegally confiscated a substantial amount of Tahitian royal land when it annexed Tahiti from PÅmare
V in 1880. Since then Mairau has won several court battles proving his lineage and continues to assert his right to ascend the throne and reclaim the land. Joinville

PÅmare and Leopold Pomare have also asserted hereditary claims to the nonexistent Tahitian throne. As of early 2012, all three are on Wikipedia’s “list of pretenders.”

More information:
Wikipedia on Tahiti | Tahiti1.com introduces you to Tahiti, giving practical travel and tourist information about the island as well as features like recipes for Tahitian dishes like “Pork Curry With Tarua (taro)”, “Banana Poe” and “Coconut Chicken with Fafa”| The World Socialist Web Site reported on the French Polynesian political crisis in 2005: “Pro-independence parties topple government following Tahiti by-election” | Read the Pacific Islands Report’s 2009 report on the political crisis: “French Polynesia at Loss for Political Leadership” |Â In 2006 the French admitted Tahiti and other French Polynesian island faced fallout from their nuclear tests | Want to go on a wonderful vacation in the Society Islands? Have a zillion dollars? Try Bora Bora.

French Polynesia–When You Go There

[mappress mapid=”15″ center=”-17.5, -149″ zoom=”8″]

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s been to French Polynesia who complains that the islands didn’t deliver on their promised dose of luxury and sun. Lonely Planet’s Tahiti and French Polynesia pages describe French Polynesia as “a mesmerising wonderland of reef-fringed islands and translucent aqua lagoons” that’s “[t]he epitome of the Pacific dream.” Not bad. Lonely Planet also points out that mango season comes in two chunks, from October to December and from May to July, that the “number of poisonous snakes and spiders=0” and that in French Polynesia there are approximately 300,000 Tiare flowers harvested each day.

Finding surfing blogs or “cruising” blogs that rave about French Polynesia is pretty easy; finding English-language blogs by writers who really know French Polynesian life and culture is a different story. Of course traveling to tropical island paradise” is different from living there day to day. Coconut radio, the blog of globe-hopping travel writer Celeste Brash, who literally wrote the book on Frensh Polynesia, while still written by a Westerner, promises, “no tourist hype…just experience-based storytelling and real-life images.” Brash lived in French Polynesia for fifteen years and has developed a perspective on life there that at least offers insight beyond that of your typical honeymooner. Who else will take you Tuna Wrestling in the Tuamotus, take you “Traveling French Polynesia on a Supply Ship” and introduce you to “Punu Pua’atoro: Spam of the Gods?” By the way, Brash explains the name of the blog: “in French Polynesia when gossip is passed along from person to person we call it the coconut radio.”

French Polynesia–Music

 

Before missionaries made their way to French Polynesia in the early 19th century, public music in French Polynesia deeply intertwined with dance to enable musicians and dancers to tell “multimedia” stories. Polynesian rhythms and dances are often a direct form of cultural and spiritual communication. Drummers “speak” with rhythm, piecing together beats into patterns analogous to sentences, arranging those into longer pieces that form the background rhythms for dancers who further the storytelling with narrative motion.

Polynesian drum ensembles, such as those from Tahiti (like this one) are composed of multiple drums of different sizes and pitches, all of which are made from materials found nearby. A drumming group will often feature instruments such as the sharply pitched to’ere, pronounced “to-eddie,” which is a narrow cylindrical drum made from a hollowed-out log and hit with a wood stick (see the “to’ere” in action) and the more resonant pahu, such as the Tahitian bass pahu, which drummers hit with padded sticks.

(Want to make your own Pahu? It’s easy! Just follow the step-by-step instructions included in this 11 part YouTube series. All you have to do is cut down one of your local coconut trees, chop out a drum-sized chunk, remove the bark with a stick, scrape the outer bark off the stump with a slightly angled dropling/draw-knife, spend a couple days with a Japanese spear point plane and a half dozen other tools to get at the next layer…okay, so it’s not so easy.)

When Christian missionaries arrived in French Polynesia most considered the music as primitive and too seductive in nature; colonial authorities regularly banned much Polynesian music, replacing it with hymns and other forms of “more appropriate” songs. French Polynesians took quickly to Christian music, called “himene” (hymns), and by the early 20th century three general types of himene had developed:

1) Himene tarava: features a large choir (up to 80 singers) composed of men and women who sing in complicated multi-part, multi-tone harmonies. According to National Geographic’s page on the music of Tahiti, “this form of singing…is distinguished by a unique drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, which is a characteristic formed by several different voices; it is also accompanied by steady grunting of staccato, nonsensical syllables.” [An example of himene tarava.]

2) Himene ru’au: slow a capella songs, usually sung by a choir and soloists sitting in a semicircle. [An example of himene ru’au]

3) ‘Ute: celebratory songs, often with a satirical tone, that a small number of people sing accompanied by guitars and/or ukeleles. [An example of ‘ute. And another.]

Today Polynsesian string bands like Tahiti’s Te Ava Piti combine multi-part (polyphonic) harmonies with guitars and Tahitian ukeleles to create uplifting songs tailor made for your family feast or community party. There are also slower, more romantic songs that blend Polynesia and the West; musicians play string band instruments and dancers accompany with an ‘aparima dance. Even much of today’s Tahitian pop music uses Polynesian percussion or chanting as its foundation, meshing ancient island instruments and sounds with electronica or Euro-pop.

More information:
National Geographic on Polynesian Choral Singing | National Geographic on Polynesian String Bands | JanesOceania on the music of Tahiti | Don’t you dare miss the Heiva i Tahiti festival in July

In class we’re going to listen to:

— The Tahitian Choir, “Tangi Maha Te” and “Te Tia Mamoe”
In 1992 French musicologist Pascal Nabet-Meyer recorded a group called The Tahitian Choir from the French Polynesian island of Rapa Iti singing Polynesian microtonal and polyrhythmic songs. The album became an unlikely global hit. French Polynesian choral music mixes Polynesian polyphonic harmonies with Church-inspired hymns. The style features many voices singing complicated, intertwining harmonies, as well as a distinct and unique drop in pitch at the ends of vocal phrases. Singers also are known to grunt to add emphasis to the music. Listen to the Tahitian Choir sing “Te Moko.”

— from Toa Reva, “Chants et danses de Tahiti (The Best of Traditional Music from Tahiti),”

“I Ruga Ima Uga Pu”

— Toa’Ura, “E Miti Afa’i Hau”
Toa’Ura, meaning “Red Warriors,” is a multifaceted Tahitian ensemble that fuses traditional Polynesian percussion and melodies with contemporary Western instruments and song structures. To get a sense of how this works–and it works very well–you can watch many
Toa’Ura videos on YouTube, such as in this series from a live performance, dancers and all: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7. Plus, sing karaoke to “E Miti Afa’i Hau.”

In class we’re not going to listen to Guy Gorgeous.

French Polynesia–Language

 

French is the only official language of French Polynesia, though a 1996 law, which declares French the official language, also says, vaguely, “Tahitian and other Polynesian languages can be used.” As of 2007 about 70% of French Polynesians report that the
language they speak at home is French, while most of the others speak other Polynesian languages, mostly Tahitian, though about 95% of people in French Polynesia reported they could speak, read and write French and only 3/4 had knowledge of any Polynesian language.

Beside French, in the Marquesas Islands people speak one of several Polynesian dialects called Marquesan. The common language of most of the Tuamotus is called Tuamotuan, though in Puka-Puka the main language is Marquesan. In the Gambier Islands people use Mangarevan. In the Australs, the indigenous language of Austral is giving way to Tahitian.

While French is the only official language of Tahiti, most Tahitians speak the indigenous Tahitian language (Reo Tahiti) as well. Until the early 19th century Tahitian was only a spoken language but British missionaries changed that by translating the Bible into Tahitian. The alphabet they developed only has 8 consonants (f, h, m, n, p, r, t, v) and 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Today Tahitian has only about 1,000 words but since the pronunciation and grammar differ from English, learning the language is very hard. Especially challenging to English speakers is the fact that “the glottal stop” occurs very often in Tahitian. (What is a glottal stop and how do you make it? This woman explains it all.) Starting in the 1980s the Tahitian government began to promote learning of Tahitian
alongside French and today both are taught in schools, though the French constitution forbids its territories for having an official language that’s anything other than French.

In Pitcairn, the Pitcairn Islanders, who are the descendants of the Bounty Mutineers, speak both English and Pitkern, which is a creole language that mixes 18th century English and Tahitian. As the Pitcairn Islanders populated the Norfolk islands, and their creole language, Norfuk, is similar to Pitkern.