Islanders in Polynesia

"In 200 years, we have come from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age." -- Heimau, an elder of Ra'iatea.

Our guides to the island of Ra'iatea on May 12 were a local elder named Heimau (in the photo at left) and Tua Pittman, the cultural specialist on the National Geographic Orion for our week-long cruise (in the photo at right). Our destination on the island was a central sacred site called the Marae Taputapuatea, a gathering place for traditional island navigators to meet and connect to the sacredness they feel here. Tua, himself a master navigator, participated in one of these gatherings a few years ago, coming in a canoe from his home in the Cook Islands.

From the time he joined us on our "Le Truck," Heimau began to tell us about his long life: he is 80 years old. He said to us:

"I have never had a job: working for pay would be slavery. Getting a job would be completely stupid. Sometimes I need a little money to buy a beer, but mostly I don't need money. I can build my house; raise breadfruit, coconuts, and other fruit; catch fish, and raise chickens. No, I don't feed my chickens, they find their own food. Feeding them would be completely stupid. 

"My father said I didn't need to go to school; I could write my name and count to 1000, and that was enough. So when I was 13 years old, I left home and I had my first partner. Now my oldest child is 66 years old, and my youngest is 18. In between I have 10 sons and 10 daughters. I have never left this island: that would be completely stupid."

Heimau and Tua preparing us to respectfully enter the Marae.
First they chanted to invoke the spirits and make us welcome there.

In this area of the Marae, navigators from many islands -- Hawaii to New Zealand -- leave stones from their homes.
Heimau sounded a number of bursts on his conch shell, as well as chanting.

Tua and Heimau approached this sacred stone at the Marae, and then encouraged
all of us to line up and place hands on it, sensing the spiritual nature of this place.

Len touching the sacred stone.

As we traveled, we saw a many other local people engaged in a number of activities. We visited two working vanilla farms, one very simple with the vanilla vines growing on small palms underneath larger trees, another very modern in a greenhouse protected by nets. We visited textile workers who had an outdoor studio tie-dyeing pareos (and also selling them). We saw a fisherman who had tamed sharks by sharing the trimmings from his catch, and allowed the tourists to stroke their backs. Almost every time we landed, small groups of musicians were singing and playing ukuleles, drums, and other instruments. We saw farmers working on their lands. Here are just a few of the photos representing these people:

On the island of Fakarava, we saw lots of kids on bikes.

On the island of Makatea, musicians greeted us
as we waited for transportation.

On Bora Bora: a newly dyed pareo.

The fisherman with his tame sharks on the island of Fakarava.

Author of this content is Mae's food blog: Maefood dot blogspot.com. 

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