French Polynesia culture: how to experience it

A Polynesian man called Tupaia was employed as Captain Cook’s guide in the South Pacific. He astounded the European crew with his geographical knowledge, his ability to navigate between seemingly unconnected islands, and his communication with dispersed island inhabitants as he went. Polynesian culture is not just island culture, but an islands culture that spans an area of sea the size of a continent. Core to Polynesian culture is the idea of mana – a binding spirit that unites disparate places.

Now it’s easier to fly to Paris than to Samoa from Tahiti, and these island groups are linked to other nations, rather than each other – French Polynesia is now a semi-autonomous French territory. European colonisers didn’t just employ French Polynesians as navigators, but made use of the islands in other ways, changing the culture as they did.

“Today, our culture is evolving, but we are trying to go backwards if that makes sense,” explains Alexandrine Wan, the founder of our Tahiti-based partner, Nani Travels, “We try to go backwards to reclaim our identity, understand our roots better, and take better care of what’s around us.

“With colonisation, with the missionaries, we lost a lot of our culture. So today it’s about renewal. New generations are going back to things like dancing and tattoos; they’re trying to find their culture and, when they do, they’re proud it.”

The last Friday in May has recently been celebrated as Pareu Day on Tahiti. The tourist board encourages Tahitians to don their pareu – a sarong-style garment – for the day. The day is not just for tourism. Traditional dress, tattooing, music, religious stories, dance – and even activities that might lead to dancing were all erased on the islands over the centuries by European missionaries. Pareu Day is one small step towards restoring pride in Tahitian culture.

From the 1950s onwards, as the influence of the church over society waned, traditional cultural practices started to return – but some had been lost. The oral tradition had been disrupted, breaking chains of knowledge transfer from elders.

Ironically, written accounts by some of the first foreign visitors and colonisers – biased as they were, could be used as sources from which to revive lost culture. When dancing was brought back, it found a space in hotels – where it could be performed for tourists before it was culturally acceptable in local spaces. A cultural revival followed in the 1970s and continues today. The annual Heiva Festival, previously banned, celebrates many of the once-lost dances every summer in Papeete’s To‘ata Square and across the islands.

French Polynesian culture now has spaces to protect it – like the dedicated Maison de la Culture de Tahiti (Te Fare Tauhiti Nui) in Papeete, and the Matavaa O Te Henua Enana (the Marquesas Art and Culture Festival, occurring every four years on the Marquesas). But globalisation still threatens cultural practices here, as it does everywhere.

Today, tourism still has a role in preserving island heritage. Around 18 percent of the population are employed in the tourism industry – it has a large influence over the islands.

Yet the best experiences, like a day you spend with Hervé, aren’t necessarily, as Alexandrine explains, with ‘tourism people’, and her company recognises the need to protect their ‘guardians of knowledge’ from the demands of the tourism industry.

“Hervé teaches kids about the botanical world, the wind, the stars. He lived it, he didn’t study it… Hervé is well known in the community but we spent two years really getting to know him, creating a partnership – he doesn’t work with anyone else. We have staff dedicated to staying in touch with people like Hervé, ensuring their invoices are right. Because they’re rare people, and we want to respect that.”

Alexandrine has a sustainable tourism non-profit running alongside their tour company, dedicated to protecting French Polynesian nature and culture.