m/s Paul Gauguin" ~ June 1-8, 2019
French Polynesia
Tahiti is part of the Windward Islands which also include Moorea, Tetiaroa and Mehetia.
Tahiti’s 386 mi.² make up 1/4 of the surface of French Polynesia and claim 2/3 of the population. Pape’ete is the administrative capital of French Polynesia. The most famous Tahitian flower is the tiare. This gardenia with 6 to 8 delicately scented white petals is indigenous to the islands.
Moorea
Ten miles northwest of Pape’ete, is Moorea, traditionally called a Aimeo. The island is in the shape of an isosceles triangle with the surface area of 51 square miles. Two sides of the island are mountainous and are joined by Mt. Tohivea, 3960 feet high. The base of the mountain, just under 12 miles wide, with a northern exposure, is cut into the side by two bays. Each bay, Cook, and Opunohu, opens at .6 miles in width and penetrates 2.5 miles into the interior. They are separated from one another by Mount Rotui, 2950 feet high. The center of the mountain has a wide circular depression about 6 miles across, which looks like the creator of an ancient volcano. Heavy erosion has caused the formation of about a dozen basaltic peaks 2,100 to 2,700 feet high. It has also chiseled ridges, channeled slopes and excavated perpendicular valleys all the way to the shore, giving a rough outline to the coastal flatlands. A barrier reef, which is almost entirely submerged dream high tide, surrounds the island. The reef, broken by a dozen passes to the open sea, limits the size of the lagoon to only 4920 feet across.
Before the 1960s, the islands economy was essentially based upon copra, coffee and vanilla. These three products made fortunes for the islands landowners as did Papeete’s taro, sweet potato’s, bananas. Moorea’s main crop is now pineapples.
Bora Bora
150 miles northwest of Tahiti, Bora Bora is composed of one main island about 6 miles long by 2.5 miles wide. A central mountain chain runs through the island, with its principal points being Mt. Otemanu, 2384 feet high and the double-peaked Mt. Pahia, 2030 feet high.
Separated from the main island by a rather deep Lagoon, is the small island of Toopua and the islet of Toopua Iti. These three islands are actually the eroded remnants of the crater walls of an ancient volcano. Together they encompass an area of a bout 15 square miles. Encircling all the islands at a distance of .6 to 2-miles, runs a barrier reef. This perfect reef is broken only once by the Teavanui pass to the west. The width and depth of the pass are enough to allow passage between the ocean and the lagoon to most large ships. Just inside the barrier reef many motus have sprung up. The most northerly and the longest his Motu Mute, which serves as an airstrip.
Most of the island is Rocky, with very little topsoil. The soil on the coastal flatlands is a mixture of volcanic debris and coral sand. Like other islands in the Society group, there is abundant vegetation, especially on the West Coast. The peaks, however, are barren.
A perfect paradise, vying with Moorea and Huahine for the title, “pearl of the society islands,” Bora Bora is incomparable with respect to the colors of her lagoon.
A French possession since 1888, the island became an American naval base between 1942 and 1946, with a garrison of 6000 men. From that time, there still remain huts, piers, bunkers, cannons, and until 1961 the first and only airport in French Polynesia.
Sea Life
More than 300 species of fish of all shapes and sizes, from the giant and graceful Manta Ray to the small, multicolored butterfly fish, frolic in the lagoon or on the edge of the barrier reef. Other fish include Jack’s, surgeons groupers, grunts wrasses and mullets. The parrot fish are brilliantly colored and have powerful jaws to crush the coral they feed on.
French is considered the national language of French Polynesia, but Tahitian is just as common—with some islands having additional dialects.
No Polynesian language was written until Peter Heywood jotted down a Tahitian vocabulary while awaiting trial for his part in the mutiny on the Bounty (he was convicted, but pardoned). :The early missionaries who later translated the Bible into Tahitian decided which letters of the Roman alphabet to use to approximate the sounds of the Polynesian languages. : These tended to vary from place to place. : For example, they used the consonants "t" and "v" in Tahitian. :In Hawaiian, which is similar, they used "k" and "w." The Tahitian language has a melodic intonation like a siren’s song and is very simple with only 16 letters and 1,000 words. With only five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and eleven consonants (b, f, g, h, k, m, n, p, r, t, v). An apostrophe indicates a short pause and most vowels are pronounced. The international airport of Tahiti is Faaa, and each "a" is pronounced: F'a'a'a.'
Languages and dialects by Island
Cook Islands: English, Rarotongan (Maori)
Society Islands: French, Tahitian
Hawaii: English, Hawaiian (limited)
Tonga: English, Tongan
Marquesas Islands: French, Tahitian, and Marquesan
Fiji: Fijian, English, and Fiji-Hindi
Tuamotu Islands: French, Tahitian, and Paumotu (Tuamotuan)
Words To Know
Hello: la Orana (yo-rah-nah)
See you later: Nana (nah-nah)
Welcome: Maeva (mah-yeh-vah)
Thank you: Maururu (mah-roo-roo)
Yes: E (ay)
No: Aita (eye-tah)
Island: Motu (mo-too)
French Polynesian Words
"Tamure" is a dance. From Tahitian.
"Tapa" is bark cloth used for loincloths (Maro), turbans (Pare), kilts (Pāreu) and Cook Island Māori/Tahitian ponchos (Tīputa). From Tahitian and Cook Island Māori. Commonly used to refer to Tongan, Samoan and Niuean bark cloth (Ngata/Hiapo/Siapo) which differs from Tapa in that it is thicker, produced differently with different materials, colorfully died and highly decorated with patterns and pictures.
"Tiki" is a carving in humanoid form. From various Eastern Polynesian languages.
"Taboo," Tabu, Tabú or "Tapu" (Polynesian culture) is a Polynesian cultural concept from which the word taboo is derived A social and/or spiritual prohibition and is an implicit prohibition on something, (usually against an utterance or behavior), based on a cultural sense that it is excessively repulsive or, perhaps, too sacred for ordinary people.
"Tattoo" was derived from the French Polynesian word tattow/tatau by the French. It was badly mis-pronounced and spelled: "tattoo." It is commonly held that the modern popularity of tattooing stems from Captain James Cook's three voyages to the South Pacific in the late 18th century. James Cook's voyages and the dissemination of the texts and images from them brought more awareness about tattooing (imported the word tattow into Western languages). On Cook's first voyage in 1768, his science officer and expedition botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, as well as artist Sydney Parkinson and many others of the crew, returned to England with a keen interest in tattooing with Banks writing about them extensively. Parkinson is believed to have gotten a tattoo himself in Tahiti. Preserved tattoos on ancient mummified human remains reveal that tattooing has been practiced throughout the world for many centuries. In 2015, scientific re-assessment of the age of the two oldest known tattooed mummies identified Ötzi as the oldest example then known. This body, with 61 tattoos, was found embedded in glacial ice in the Alps, and was dated to 3250 BCE. In 2018, the oldest figurative tattoos in the world were discovered on two mummies from Egypt which are dated between 3351 and 3017 BCE
The Tahitian "Mahu" or "Rae Rae"
The term "mahu" originally referred to transvestites in pre-colonial Polynesia. Much like the native American cultures, throughout Polynesia, the mahu were not only accepted in their communities, but they were also regarded as gifted and divine, possessing the qualities of both the male and female gender.
Since the islands were colonized, mahu has broadened to include cross-dressers, drag queens, female impersonators, and transsexuals. The term has taken on a bit of a derogatory and negative connotation in recent years, which is why the local Tahitians prefer the term "rae rae."
"Rae rae" is the term that is most commonly used now to describe transvestites. The rae rae in the islands are pretty well respected in fact. They tend to have jobs in the service industry and you’ll definitely come across them in the hotels, restaurants, in dance performances, and on the airlines.
There have been many conflicting stories and articles that have been written about the rae raes and how this phenomenon occurred throughout Polynesia. The most common theory was that a family that did not have any girls would raise one of the boys as a girl. Over the years reports have noted that it was the first boy, or the second boy, or the last boy, or the forth boy. If you ask a rae rae that was raised this way, meaning it was not necessarily by choice to be raised as a girl, they will probably tell you that there was no rule as to which child it was in terms of order.
Today, although Tahitians are no longer choosing to raise one of their boys as a girl as their ancestors had, there is a new generation of rae rae – those who have chosen this path. Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” French Polynesia included a segment with interviews of five rae raes. “Tahiti evokes imagery of paradise, but there's more to Tahiti than meets the eye. Tony arrives in French Polynesia to seek out its lesser-known attributes: legends of cannibalism, a subsistence of transvestites, and much more.” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1122056/ and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1122056/?ref_=tt_rvi_tt_i_1
Hello: la Orana (yo-rah-nah)
See you later: Nana (nah-nah)
Welcome: Maeva (mah-yeh-vah)
Thank you: Maururu (mah-roo-roo)
Yes: E (ay)
No: Aita (eye-tah)
Island: Motu (mo-too)
French Polynesian Words
"Tamure" is a dance. From Tahitian.
"Tapa" is bark cloth used for loincloths (Maro), turbans (Pare), kilts (Pāreu) and Cook Island Māori/Tahitian ponchos (Tīputa). From Tahitian and Cook Island Māori. Commonly used to refer to Tongan, Samoan and Niuean bark cloth (Ngata/Hiapo/Siapo) which differs from Tapa in that it is thicker, produced differently with different materials, colorfully died and highly decorated with patterns and pictures.
"Tiki" is a carving in humanoid form. From various Eastern Polynesian languages.
"Taboo," Tabu, Tabú or "Tapu" (Polynesian culture) is a Polynesian cultural concept from which the word taboo is derived A social and/or spiritual prohibition and is an implicit prohibition on something, (usually against an utterance or behavior), based on a cultural sense that it is excessively repulsive or, perhaps, too sacred for ordinary people.
"Tattoo" was derived from the French Polynesian word tattow/tatau by the French. It was badly mis-pronounced and spelled: "tattoo." It is commonly held that the modern popularity of tattooing stems from Captain James Cook's three voyages to the South Pacific in the late 18th century. James Cook's voyages and the dissemination of the texts and images from them brought more awareness about tattooing (imported the word tattow into Western languages). On Cook's first voyage in 1768, his science officer and expedition botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, as well as artist Sydney Parkinson and many others of the crew, returned to England with a keen interest in tattooing with Banks writing about them extensively. Parkinson is believed to have gotten a tattoo himself in Tahiti. Preserved tattoos on ancient mummified human remains reveal that tattooing has been practiced throughout the world for many centuries. In 2015, scientific re-assessment of the age of the two oldest known tattooed mummies identified Ötzi as the oldest example then known. This body, with 61 tattoos, was found embedded in glacial ice in the Alps, and was dated to 3250 BCE. In 2018, the oldest figurative tattoos in the world were discovered on two mummies from Egypt which are dated between 3351 and 3017 BCE
The Tahitian "Mahu" or "Rae Rae"
The term "mahu" originally referred to transvestites in pre-colonial Polynesia. Much like the native American cultures, throughout Polynesia, the mahu were not only accepted in their communities, but they were also regarded as gifted and divine, possessing the qualities of both the male and female gender.
Since the islands were colonized, mahu has broadened to include cross-dressers, drag queens, female impersonators, and transsexuals. The term has taken on a bit of a derogatory and negative connotation in recent years, which is why the local Tahitians prefer the term "rae rae."
"Rae rae" is the term that is most commonly used now to describe transvestites. The rae rae in the islands are pretty well respected in fact. They tend to have jobs in the service industry and you’ll definitely come across them in the hotels, restaurants, in dance performances, and on the airlines.
There have been many conflicting stories and articles that have been written about the rae raes and how this phenomenon occurred throughout Polynesia. The most common theory was that a family that did not have any girls would raise one of the boys as a girl. Over the years reports have noted that it was the first boy, or the second boy, or the last boy, or the forth boy. If you ask a rae rae that was raised this way, meaning it was not necessarily by choice to be raised as a girl, they will probably tell you that there was no rule as to which child it was in terms of order.
Today, although Tahitians are no longer choosing to raise one of their boys as a girl as their ancestors had, there is a new generation of rae rae – those who have chosen this path. Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” French Polynesia included a segment with interviews of five rae raes. “Tahiti evokes imagery of paradise, but there's more to Tahiti than meets the eye. Tony arrives in French Polynesia to seek out its lesser-known attributes: legends of cannibalism, a subsistence of transvestites, and much more.” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1122056/ and https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1122056/?ref_=tt_rvi_tt_i_1