Tahiti Intertwined: Ancestral Land, Tourist Postcard, and Nuclear

Tahiti Intertwined: Ancestral Land, Tourist Postcard, and Nuclear Test Site
Author(s): Miriam Kahn
Reviewed work(s):
Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 102, No. 1 (Mar., 2000), pp. 7-26
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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MIRIAM KAHN
Departmentof Anthropology
Universityof Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Tahiti Intertwined: Ancestral Land, Tourist Postcard, and
Nuclear Test Site
In this article,I applyideas from Foucault,Lefebvre,and Soja aboutthirdspace,or space beyonddualisms,to an understandingof "Tahiti"as a complex,intertwinedplace.Formost Tahitians,a sense of placeis rootedin land,whichindividuals describeas a nurturingmother.Genealogicalties to land define personalidentitiesand social relationships.For the
worldat large,however,the perceptionof Tahitiis basedon seductive,mass-mediated,touristicimages.The perpetuation
of these images,whose originsgo backtwo-hundredyears,has becomeincreasinglyenmeshedin the economicandpolitical agendasof the Frenchcolonialgovernment.The resumptionof nucleartestingin FrenchPolynesiain 1995-96 andthe
subsequentriotingby Tahitians,whichdisseminatednegativeimagesthroughoutthe world,providea settingfor an analysis of Tahitithatmoves beyonddualisms.Tahitiis understoodinsteadas an intertwinedthirdspace,equallyreal andimagined,immediateandmediated.[place,colonialism,imagery,tourism,nucleartesting]
The space in which we live, which drawsus out of ourselves,
in whichthe erosionof ourlives, ourtime andourhistoryoccurs, the space thatclaws and gnaws at us, is also, in itself, a
heterogeneousspace ... we live inside a set of relations.
[MichelFoucault1986:23]
Thereis no "reality"withouta concentrationof energy,without a focus or core-nor, therefore,without the dialectic.
[HenriLefebvre(1974)1991:399]
In grappling to understand social life, late-twentiethcentury scholars have begun to give the same kind of intense analytical attention to space that nineteenth- and
early twentieth-century scholars gave to history. In the
past, as Michel Foucault ([1976]1980:70) points out,
"space was treated as the dead, the fixed, the undialectical,
the immobile. Time, on the contrary, was richness, fecundity, life, dialectic." As the relative positioning of space
and time has become realigned, space has emerged as more
central than before and, around it, a new body of literature
has developed. This may be in part because, as Foucault
(1986:23) states, "the anxiety of our era has to do fundamentally with space, no doubt a great deal more than with
time." Scholars like Foucault have not only recognized the
importance of space in understanding social action, but
have illuminated new ways of thinking about space, an approach Foucault calls "heterotopology."
Henri Lefebvre, likewise, in his powerful treatise on the
production of space, calls for a "science of space" that
overcomes the "abyss between the mental sphere on one
side and the physical and social spheres on the other"
([1974] 1991:6). He argues for a science that moves beyond
mere descriptions of what exists in space or discourses on
space to one that gives rise to a knowledge of space and its
production ([1974]1991:7). Space, he says, embraces a
multitude of intersections. Desiring to create a theoretical
unity between fields that are apprehended separately (the
physical and the mental), but interact with and influence
one another, Lefebvre labels his project the development
of a "unitarytheory" ([1974]1991:14). He outlines a dyad,
from which a triad, or "thirdspace"(il y a toujours l'autre),
emerges.
FIRSTSPACE
SECONDSPACE THIRDSPACE
mentalspace
socialspace
physicalspace
livedspace
perceivedspace conceivedspace
(l'espacepergu) (l'espacecongu)
(l'espacevdcu)
It is the thirdspace that he desires to understand.Simultaneously physical and mental, concrete and abstract, it
emerges from the dialectic of the two. Mental space, formulated in the head, is projected onto physical reality,
which in turn feeds the imaginary. Edward Soja (1989:18)
refers to thirdspace as the habitus of social practices, a constantly shifting and changing milieu of ideas, events, appearances, and meanings (Soja 1996:2).
This idea of thirdspace, formulated by Foucault and Lefebvre in France in the 1970s, and applied by Soja in the
1980s and '90s,' has had surprisingly little impact on disciplines like anthropology that aim to understandpeople and
environments. Indeed, for much of anthropology's history,
place has been neglected. For decades, it was relegated to a
AmericanAnthropologist102(1):7-26. Copyright0 2000, AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation
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static physicalbackdrop,a kind of stage-settingremoved
from human action and interaction-the mandatoryfirst
chapterin everyearlyethnography.Onlyin thepastdecade
or so have anthropologistscome to gripswithits complexities, even pleadingfor a theoryof place (Rodman1992).
Yet, theirrenewedinterestin the topic has often only perpetuatedthe abyss in one of anthropology'sown set of dualisms, namely between outsider/insiderperspectives.
Some anthropologistshave deconstructedthe powerful
concepts of place that outsiders entertainand impose
Tourismindusthroughan assemblageof representations.
tries, for example, produce countless texts and images
throughwhichspacesget transformedinto,andreproduced
as, sites and destinations.2Museum exhibits and theme
parksalso rely on fabricatedsettingsto providecontextand
convey messages.3Likewise,the mass marketingof goods
dependson the manipulationof images of places to influence the consumingpublic.Capitalistmarkets,while economically needing other peoples and environments,may
politically seek to eliminate them throughconsciously
craftedmisrepresentations
(Williamson1986).
Othershave triedto understandplacesfromthe perspective of theirinhabitants,noting thatplaces are developed
interactivelyas individualsrelateto them,shapethem,and
createthem.4They have connectedplaces to social imagination and practice,to dwelling and movement,and to
memoryand desire,and have foundworldsthatare sung,
narrated,and mapped(Feld andBasso 1996:8,11). Focusing on the internallyconstructedand negotiatednatureof
place, anthropologistshave produceda varietyof new descriptivephrasesto debunkthe old notion of location as
staticbackdrop.These newly perceivedspaces are said to
be "discursivelyconstructed"(Appadurai1988), "multilocal" and "multivocal"(Rodman 1992), unconfined"ethnoscapes"(GuptaandFerguson1992),and"dynamicmultisensualprocesses"(HirschandO'Hanlon1995).Yet, the
hoped-fortheoryof place has not materialized.Anthropology's recentconcernwith conceptsof place andprocesses
of placemakingmaybenefitfromideasaboutthirdspace.5
Here I apply ideas aboutthirdspaceto exploreand understand"Tahiti."In doing so, I move beyond the seemingly contradictoryperspectivesof Tahitias eitherfantasized postcardor inhabitedlocale, and instead embrace
Tahitias a "habitatof social practices."Tahitiemergesas a
complexlived spacethatis generatedwithinhistoricaland
spatialdimensions,bothrealandimagined,immediateand
mediated.Various notions of place, often at battle with
each other,nonethelessinvolve, underpin,presuppose,respondto, andgenerateone another.
Places of Tahiti
When I began researchon the productionof place in
1994 (a secondfield site andresearchtopicfor me), I chose
French Polynesia as a field location precisely because,
more than most places, Tahiti has a life of its own that
dwells in outsiders'imaginations.6While conductingmy
research,I lived in two differentvillages, bothin the Leewardgroupof the SocietyIslands(one of the five archipelagos in FrenchPolynesia).
One village, Fetuna,on the islandof Raiatea,is located
25 kilometersfromUturoa,the island'smaintownandthe
localFrenchadministrative
center.Raiateais heavilyinfluenced by its administrativerole, which producesa strong
Frenchbureaucraticpresence.I chose Fetunabecause it
was as farawayas one couldget fromUturoaon theisland.
Although some Fetuna residents worked in town, most
spenttheirdays in the village. There,houses lined an unpaved, poorly maintained,coastal road made of dirt that
hadbeenpackedwithcrushedcoralandshelldredgedfrom
the sea. One day, the mara'amutradewinds blew fiercely
and the sea thrashedover the road,leavingbehindpiles of
trash that otherwiseresided unobtrusivelyon the ocean
floor. Rusty tin cans, plastic bottles, disposablediapers,
plasticbags,tornclothes,andbrokenthongsandalslittered
the road.Severaldays afterthe winds had calmeddown,
governmentemployees responsiblefor road maintenance
arrived.They sat on top of theiryellow roadgradersand
lethargicallybut methodicallyplowed the garbageback
into the sea. Thatsameroadcircledthe islandand,eventually, widerandpaved,led into Uturoawhereit was flanked
by numerousshops selling food, clothing, pharmaceuticals, stationerygoods, fishing gear, and other sundries.
Upon enteringthese stores,shopperswere usuallygreeted
by posters and calendarswith pictures of sandy white
beaches understunningblue skies, racks of postcardsof
coquettish, bare-breastedwomen, or magazines with
glossy photos of multicoloredfish dartingthroughsparklingturquoiselagoons.
The othervillage I lived in was Faie, locatedon Huahine, an island whose inhabitantsare known for being
proud and independent.The center of Faie was densely
packed with colorfulhouses nestled among trees. At the
southernend of the village,the roadcrosseda smallbridge
before it climbeda steephill to a lookoutwith a magnificent view over the bay andsurroundingpeaks.EverySunday, like clockwork,an air-conditionedvan full of tourists
passedthroughthe village.They came fromthe Windsong,
a cruise ship thatsailed the watersof the Society Islands,
stoppingeach day in a differentport duringa week-long
trip.In Faie, theirdestinationwas a groupof "sacredeels"
that, accordingto guidebooks, were the biggest in the
world. The eels lived under the bridge, slitheringin a
streamoften litteredwith debris.The van parkedand the
tourists,usually wearing designer clothes and clutching
cameras,piledout.Tahitianchildrenstoppedtheirplaying,
shyly clusterednearby,and watched.The guide encouraged the touriststo go into the small store next to the
bridge,buy cannedmackerel(where,cleverly,the priceof
mackerelwas exceptionallyhigh), andhand-feedthe eels.
KAHN
Most touristsstoodat the bridgeandaskedthe guidea few
questionsaboutthe eels or took pictures,while the more
adventuresomeamong them gingerly stepped into the
murkywaterbelow, danglingpieces of fish fromtheirfingers. Soon thereaftereveryoneclimbedbackinto theirairconditionedvan andleft.
Fetunaand Faie are very differentfrom one another,as
are the two islandsof RaiateaandHuahineon whichthey
are located.Yet, as I lived in each, I was struckless by the
differencebetweenthem thanby a greater,morepowerful
contrast.As in manytouristdestinations,the disparitywas
between daily life as lived by the local inhabitants(Tahitians workingin theirgardens,fishing in the sea, visiting
with friends,lookingat tourists,repairingbrokenvehicles,
or staying in theirhouses to clean, cook, or watch television) and the seductiveimages offered on calendarsand
postcards,and in magazinesand guide books, that lured
touriststo an exotic destination(perhapsonly to be disappointedby such a lacklusterexperienceas tossing greasy
mackerelto eels in a dirtystream).
As time passed,I continuallywonderedaboutthese two
different places-to use Lefebvre's terminology-the
physical and perceived,on the one hand, and the mental
andconceived,on the other.At firstI had thoughtof daily
perceivedlife as existingin a separaterealmfromthe conceived tourist representations.I assumed that Tahitians,
otherthanthosefew who workedin the touristindustry,remainedunaffectedby the seductiveimages.But suddenly,
in September1995, my thoughtschanged.On September
5, the Frenchgovernmentresumednucleartestingby exploding a bomb on the atoll of Moruroa,1,200 kilometers
from Tahiti.The next day, riots swept the capitalcity of
Papeete on the island of Tahitiand images of protesters,
fires, and looting flooded worldtelevision sets and newspapers.The Frenchgovernment'sresponseto the disseminationof these images was tingedwith obvious anxiety.I
immediatelygained new insight.I awoke to the destructiveness that was not only lodged in the explodingbomb
but in the postcardimages themselves.I began to realize,
boththroughethnographicresearchandby studyingmedia
representations,how economically motivated,politically
manipulated, and consciously constructed the images
were.Above all, I understoodhow deliberatelyintertwined
they were with the Frenchcolonialenterprise.Indeed,the
productionanddistributionof imagesof Tahitias paradise
seem to servecolonialinterestsby allowingthosein power
(primarilythe Frenchand demi, who are people of mixed
ancestrywhose backgroundis bothTahitianandFrench,or
Chinese, German,English, American,etc.) to convince
those withoutpower (primarilyTahitians)that the status
quo serves Tahitianinterests.'The thirdspacethat gradually emergedfrommy researchandgrowingunderstanding
was a vastlymorecomplexand,aboveall, politicalspace.
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TAHITI INTERTWINED
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Geo-Politics and Local Habitat
Lefebvreand Foucaultare both mindfulof the political
aspects of the productionof space. Lefebvre'sscience of
space stems from his commitmentto an understandingof
politicalpractices.His theoriesaimto uncoverthe political
use of knowledgeandimply an ideologydesignedto conceal thatuse. As he states, "thedominanttendencyis towardshomogeneity,towardsthe establishmentof a dominated space" (Lefebvre [1974]1991:411). Foucault, in
particular,emphasizesa politicalunderstandingof space.
He remindsus that"themilitaryandthe administration
actuallycome to inscribethemselvesbothon a materialsoil
and withinforms of discourse"(Foucault[1976]1980:69).
Indeed, he sees the history of spaces as the history of
power. "A whole history remains to be written of
spaces-which would at the same time be the history of
powers ... from the greatstrategiesof geo-politicsto the
littletacticsof the habitat"(Foucault[1977]1980:149).
ForSoja,too, thirdspaceis eminentlypolitical.It is
a knowableandunknowable,
realandimaginedlifeworldof
emotions,events,andpoliticalchoicesthatis exexperiences,
andproblematic
istentiallyshapedby thegenerative
interplay
betweencentersandperipheries,
theabstract
andconcrete,the
andthelived,marked
impassioned
spacesof the conceptual
outmaterially
andmetaphorically
in spatialpraxis,thetransformation
of (spatial)knowledge
into(spatial)actionin a field
of unevenlydeveloped(spatial)power.[Soja1996:31]
In FrenchPolynesia,locallyinhabitedspaceis definitely
interlacedby dominant,global politics.In today's largely
postcolonial world, French Polynesia, more popularly
known as Tahiti,8remainsone of the few colonies still in
existence.Lying half-wayaroundthe worldfrom France,
FrenchPolynesiais administeredunderFrance'sMinistry
of OverseasDepartmentsandTerritories.Underthe terms
of France's1946 constitution,the colonies in the Atlantic
and Indian Oceans (Martinique,Guadeloupe, French
Guiana,and R6union)becamedipartementsd'outre-mer
(DOMs) with a legal structureand administrationthat is
identicalto the metropolitandepartments.The colonies in
the Pacific Ocean (New Caledonia,FrenchPolynesia,the
formerFranco-Britishcondominiumof the New Hebrides,
now called Vanuatu,and-after 1961-Wallis and Futuna)were renamedterritoiresd'outre-mer(TOMs).Territories,unlike departments,are administeredby a governor or governor-general.The constitutiondefined the
FrenchUnion,the new incarnationof theEmpire,in sucha
way that "the word 'colony,' like 'Empire,'was thereby
banished from French constitutionalusage" (Aldrich
1993:67).The result,however,was thatFranceestablished
a politicalpresencein all the world'smajoroceans,with a
similar colonial configurationin all DOM-TOMs (see
Bensa 1995; Giradet1972; Price 1998). Indeed,manyadministrativepersonnelrotatebetweenDOM-TOMsduring
theircareers.A decadeafterthe 1946constitution,the need
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to maintaina nucleartestingbase in FrenchPolynesia,and
the desireto linkthe DOM-TOMs,so they formeda chain
of Frenchbases encirclingthe globe, providedthe theoretical pillarsof France'sinternationalpolicy in the SouthPacific (Aldrich1993:336).
In FrenchPolynesia,the Constitutionof the Republicof
Franceremainsthe supremelaw of the land. The French
parliamentlegislates laws. The Frenchpresidentappoints
the chief administratorand most local officials. Paris retainscontrolof defense,law andorder,foreignpolicy, currency,education,immigration,healthcare,social services,
television,radiobroadcasting,andnewspapers.The degree
of autonomyexercisedby the FrenchPolynesiangovernment dependson the goodwill of the mitropole. When it
deems such actionnecessary,the Frenchstatecan assume
directandneartotalcontrol(Aldrich1993:159).The thousandsof Frenchsoldiersandcivil servantsin FrenchPolynesia can vote in local electionsthe day they arrivein the
territory.
This colonial grip manifests itself daily in numerous
ways. Tahitianchildrendevotethe majorityof theirschool
day to learningFrenchlanguage,history,and geography.
Postsecondaryeducation,otherthanat the CentreUniversitaire de Polyn6sie Franqaiseon the island of Tahiti,is
usually limited to universitiesin France since Frenchis
the only languageofficiallytaughtto Tahitians.Most television broadcastsare through Radio France Outremer
(RFO), which represents"the voice of France,"and all
theiremployeesarepaiddirectlyfromFrance.
This position of domination is not without cost to
France,which,in 1995,pumped625 millionFrenchfrancs
(U.S. $1.25 billion) into the economy to maintain it
(Benchley 1997:9).9Unlike other colonial relationships
rootedin economicexploitation,this one, instead,is motivated by economic investmentand nationalpride."'The
system is also self-perpetuating.The French payments,
upon which the economy depends,are filteredthrougha
system thatis controlledby a few families,most of whom
are French or demi." This well-entrenched,privileged
class providesbuilt-inassurancethatthe economicandpoliticalsystemwill endure.
A Reciprocal Relationship with Land
For Tahitians, as for most Pacific Islanders, a sense of
place is deeply rooted in land.12 Both ancient history and
contemporary life are grounded in the relationship between
people and land, and all that this relationship encompasses,
bestows, and justifies. Islands are believed to be born of
deities, and an island's topographical features may represent physical attributes of the gods. From the human offspring of the gods come all living things. Genealogies instruct individuals about their spiritual and familial
relationship with the land. Above all, it is a reciprocal relationship. People must care for the land because it, in turn,
feeds andprovidesfor them.In precontacttimes,everyone
had access to land, which was jointly owned by extended
families (fenua feti'i). The populationwas composed of
threemain classes: the king, or ari'i, andhigh chiefs who
possessedgodly powersand owned landthatincludedreligious sites; the royal servants,or ra'atira, who owned
largeestatesobtainedby conquestor grantedby the king;
andthe lower class, or manahune,who lived on andcultivatedland allocatedto themandfor whichthey paid with
harvested food (Tetiarahi 1987:47-48). Although this
stratifiedsocial system no longer exists, land is still the
most valuableTahitiansubstance.It providespeople with
the meansto surviveandcarefor theiroffspring,as well as
with a moraland spiritualfeeling of identityand connection.
The importanceof land can be seen in numerousways
today.Forexample,as pointedout by Raapoto(1994), the
centralTahitianconceptof 'utuafare,or household,hinges
on a notionof sharedfamilyland,includingvarioushouses
for sleeping, cooking, and eating, as well as trees and
plants.He explainsthatlandis boththe motherwho nourishes herchildrenandthe sourceandmarkerof identity.As
a nurturingmother,landprovidesfood suchas taro,yams,
and breadfruit.As the place upon which ancestralmovements and settlementsare imprinted,land connects individualsto theirfamilyhistorythroughtheirgenealogies.
These beliefs come togethermostpoignantlyin the Tahitiancustom of a motherburyingher child's placentain
the ground(Raapoto1994). The placentais called the pu
fenua (call to the earth).The umbilicalcord,whichis buried next to the placenta,is calledpito o tefenua (centerof
the earth).Marama,a middle-agedwoman on Huahine,
who had given birthat home to 24 children,explainedthis
practiceto me.
Theplacentais alwaysputbackin theearth.Whenthechildis
in thewombthemothertakescareof it,butwhenit is bornthe
mothercallsthelandto takecareof herchild.Thelandwill
give life to thepersonby providingfood.Now therearelots
of pu fenuaherebecauseI hadmanychildren,plusmy childrenbringtheirchildren's
Youcanburyit andthen
placentas.
moveaway.It doesn'tmatterbecauseyou arestillconnected
to yourfamily'sland.[Marama
Teiho,personalcommunication,1995]
The placenta can also be placed in the ground on land that
one does not own. As a Tahitian woman living in urbanPapeete told me, "When I asked the doctor for the placenta he
had no trouble giving it to me because everyone does that. I
had to stay in the hospital five days, so the placenta was put
in a plasticbag andrefrigerated.
LaterI putit in the ground
next to the house I rent in Papeete" (Manolita Ly, personal
communication, 1994).
Some of the general differences I noticed between life
on the island of Raiatea (where people are more cashdependent and reserved) and Huahine (where people are
KAHN
moreself-sufficientandoutgoing)werein partthe resultof
differentrelationsbetween people and land. When originally lookingfor a field site, I was advisedagainstworking
on Raiateapreciselybecauseits designationas the administrativecenterof the LeewardIslandsmeantthatmanyof
its inhabitantscame fromelsewhereandlived on landthey
did not own (PierreShamKoua,personalcommunication,
1994). On the otherhand,I was told that certainislands,
such as Huahineor Maupiti,wouldbe morerepresentative
of Tahitianvalues because Tahitiansstill owned most of
the land. People on Huahine,in particular,are known for
theircombativespiritwhentheirlandis at stake,as evident
in the followingparipari,a style of ancientchant."
Huahine,on whose northshoreis marae Manunu(the homeof
thegodTane)
whichwasdividedintotendistrictsbybrothers
Huahine,
willfightfortheirland,theirlife,their
Thepeopleof Huahine
country
Theywon'tstandthereandtakewhattheydon'tlike.14
A recentexampleillustratesthis. When a Japanesegroup
proposed buying the land aroundHuahine's Fauna Nui
Lake, with intentionsof developinga Sea World-typeof
amusementpark,six thousandsignatureswerequicklycollected to halt the project(ChantalSpitz, personalcommunication,1995).
Nowhere is the importanceof the connectionbetween
people, land,history,genealogy,andspiritualitymoreevidentthanin the manymaraethatrise majesticallyfromthe
earth.These are sacredsites of ancienttemplesdedicated
to individualdeitiesthatservedas portalsfor the deitiesto
descendto earth.Today,usuallyall thatremainsof a marae
is a rectangulararea that is covered with paving stones,
often surroundedby low walls, and a large stone altarat
one end. Largeuprightstonesin frontof the altar,or elsewherewithinthe walledarea,symbolizethe genealogiesof
the marae'screators.Althoughmaraeare no longerused
for religiousritualas they once were, they are deeply respected as living memorials.They markthe presenceof
deities in the landscape.They signify the history of the
movementof ancestorswho establishedmaraeas they settled in new locations. Salmon (1904:3) relates how
Ta'aroa,the Tahitiangod of creation,is permanentlyimprintedin the landscape,visiblein variousmaraeon different islands."Ta'aroa'smaraewas Vaiotaha;his upperjaw
restedat Ahutaiterai,on MaraeFaretai(on BoraBora);his
lower jaw rested on Tahuea i te Turatura,at Marae
Mata'ire'a(on Huahine);his throatandbelly, Tetumuand
Harura,at MaraeVaearai(on Raiatea)."On Huahine,for
instance,the names of the first four sons of the village of
Maeva are also the names of four of its marae.Maeva,
which has a greaterconcentrationof maraethanany other
location in Polynesia,is said to be tu'iro'ohei (renowned
for its deep culturalroots)becauseit exists on landthathas
always providedfor its inhabitantsand is rich in ancestral
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TAHITI INTERTWINED
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history.In additionto theselargehistoricalmarae,thereare
smaller,family maraelocatednext to people's housesthat
still serveas burialsites forfamilymembers.
As can be seen, land is pivotalin providinga Tahitian
sense of place and identity.Yet, most Tahitiansalso believe in the spiritualand complementaryassociationbetween land andsea. "Weneed both.Fromthe land we get
taro, yams, and breadfruit.From the sea we get fish and
seafood" (MarerevaTetuanui,personal communication,
1994). Indeed,in ancienttimes, each island was divided
into severalwedge-shapeddistricts,each of which spread
from the inlandmountainsdown to the coast. Royal families exercisedrights to land for cultivationas well as to
coastalareasfor fishing(Tetiarahi1987:48).Itis this belief
in the complementarityof land and sea that accountsfor
the Tahitianpracticeof bringingcoralinlandto addto the
stones at a maraeand explainswhy coral can be foundat
almostevery marae,no matterhow far inlandit is located
(EricKomori,personalcommunication,1995). Yet, Tahitianssee the fascinationwiththesea andthe beach,as such,
"Tahitiansdon'tcareto
as a traitthatis uniqueto tourists."5
live next to the sea or to have a view of water.They see the
waterall the time.It's nothingspecial.Touristsaretheonly
ones who cravethe water"(HaapaHautiaDituru,personal
communication,1994). Where,then,does the tourist'sdesirefor a turquoiseTahitioriginate?
Images on Europe's Confining Walls
For morethantwo-hundredyears,Europeans,and later
Americans,have createda long, continuousline of relatively consistentimages in which an idyllic Tahitiis constructedand maintainedas its own referent.Like many
such narrativesthat representstereotypesabout the past
ratherthan the past itself, "culturalproductionhas been
drivenback inside the mind ... it can no longer look directly out of its eyes at the real worldfor the referentbut
must ... traceits mentalimagesof the worldon its confining walls"(Jameson1983:118).
The earliestimages of Tahitiwere shapedby European
imperialistphilosophiesand, later,by French colonialist
politics.WhentheFrenchexplorer,Louis-Antoinede Bougainville, first arrived in Tahiti in 1768, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau had just made the "noble savage" popularin
Europe.Upon seeing Tahiti,Bougainvillenamedit "New
Cytheria"afterthe legendarybirthplaceof Aphrodite,the
Goddessof Love, aestheticizingTahitiansthroughclassical reminiscences(Despoix 1996:5).Whenhe returnedto
Europewith reportsof beautifulwomen with uninhibited
manners,visions of sexual abandonswept like wildfire
throughParisandLondon.His Frenchpublicationof Voyages in 1771, followed by the Englishtranslationin 1772,
providedEuropeanmen with a vision of earthlyparadise
and an endless source of dreams.It containedpassages
suchas the following:
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Theypressedus to choosea woman,andto comeon shore
with her; and theirgestures... denoted in what mannerwe
shouldformanacquaintance
withher.It wasdifficult... to
at
their
work
four
hundred
keep
youngFrenchsailors,who
hadseenno womenforsix months.Inspiteof allourprecautions,a younggirlcameonboard,andplacedherselfuponthe
nearoneof thehatch-ways,
whichwasopen,in
quarter-deck,
orderto giveairto thosewhowereheavingatthecapstanbelow it. Thegirlcarelesslydroppeda cloth,whichcoveredher,
and appeared
to the eyes of all beholders,suchas Venus
showedherselfto thePhrygianShepherd,
having,indeed,the
celestialformof that goddess.[Bougainville(1771)1772:
218-219]
A comparisonof Voyageswith Bougainville'soriginal
journal(Taillemite1977), however,indicatesthe extentto
whichnegativefirstencounterswere rewrittenin a positive
way for laterpublication,thus providingus with a classic
In contrast
foreshadowingof the politics of representation.
to the journalnotes, which include ample descriptionsof
Europeanfrustrationswith the Tahitiancustomof "stealing,"the publishednarrativewas carefullyrewrittenin order to appealto Europeans.16Bougainvillemadechanges
and additions,such as "referencesto goddesses,nymphs,
noble savages,andthe beautyof the landscape"(Claessen
1994:23).
When JamesCook visited Tahitibetween 1769-77, he
took alongartistslike JohnWebber,who createdintoxicating images thatfurtherreinforcedEuropeanromanticnotions (Figure 1). Europeanincorporationand recastingof
the romanticwas furtheredwhen Cook transported
Omai,
a Tahitianfrom the island of Raiatea,back to England,
makinghim the firstPolynesianto residein Europeforany
length of time (Baston 1790; Clark 1941; McCormick
1977).•7 Omai became the darling of English society.
"Friendlyandcharming,he was dressedby his benefactors
in velvetjacketsandotherfinery.Overthe next two years
he dinedin London'sbest homes, met the king, learnedto
shoot and skate and was a favoritewith the ladies"(Kay
1997:281).AfterOmai'scelebrityin England,andthe exhibition of Cook's ethnographiccollection in London,a
Polynesianvogue blossomedin Europe."Travelliterature
was popular ...
'Tahitian' verandas were designed for
countryhouses, 'Polynesian'wallpaperwas fashionable,
and artificial 'South Seas' lakes were built into landscaped
vistas" (Daws 1980:11).
In 1789, the mutiny on the HMS Bounty, the most notorious in British naval history, further fixed images of legendary Tahiti in the minds of Europeans. During the mutiny, Fletcher Christian set Captain Bligh out to sea in a
small skiff and returned to Tahiti with the HMS Bounty.
Forever after, the name of the Bounty has been associated
with male adventureand freedom, with shirking the shackles of oppressive government on the high seas, and with
finding sexual pleasures under the palms.
::-;:::
Figure 1. Poedooa (Poetua), Daughter of Oree, Chief of Ulietea
(Raiatea), one of the SocietyIslands,by JohnWebber,canvas57 x 37
of theNationalLibraryof Australia.
in., c. 1780.By permission
By the turnof the century,a backlasharoseto the noble
savageimages.BritishProtestantandFrenchCatholicmissionariesarrivedto subduea way of life that they interpretedas licentious.They also were opposedto joint ownership of land and tried to convert Tahitiansto a land
tenuresystemmorein tunewiththe idea of a Christiannuclear family (Ward and Kingdon 1995). Missionaries
slowly becamepartof a growingcolonialpresenceas English andFrenchvied for possessionof new colonies.When
two FrenchCatholicpriestsarrivedin Tahitiin 1836, the
Tahitianruler,Queen PomareIV, immediatelyexpelled
them.In responseto thisperceivedinsult,a Frenchshiparrivedin Papeetein 1838,demandingmonetarycompensation and a saluteto the Frenchflag. At the same time, a
Frenchconsul, Moerenhout,was appointedto QueenPomare. In 1842, while she and the English consul were
away, Moerenhoutorganizedlocal chiefs into signing a
petitionasking to be broughtunderFrenchprotection.A
year later, the Queen's flag was lowered and Tahitiwas
KAHN
/
TAHITI INTERTWINED
13
declared a French Protectorate.Tahitianresistancewas
strong, resulting in three years of guerrilla warfare
(1844-47). Duringthis period,legislatorsattemptedto furtherdismantlethe ancientlandsystemby establishingvarious laws in the 1840s and '50s thatguaranteedthe security
of real estatetransfers.Fromthen on, Tahitianscould sell
theirlandwith all the risksinvolved(Tetiarahi1987:50).In
1880, the queen's son and successor,PomareV, gave his
land to France.The Protectoratewas given the name of
Etablissementsfrangaisd'Oc6anie(EFO)and becamethe
Frenchcolonyit is today.
The arrivalof Frenchrule, after a centuryof romantic
images, encouragedEuropeanand Americanwritersand
artiststo make theirway to Tahitito live out, writeabout,
and painttheirdreams.Places in literatureand art,as Lefebvre([1974]1991:15)has said, are "enclosed,described,
projected,dreamtof, [and] speculatedabout."Tahitiwas
no exception. The list of literatiwho enclosed Tahiti in
their minds and projectedtheir images to the world is
great-Herman Melville, RobertLouis Stevenson,Pierre
Loti, W. Somerset Maugham, Jack London, Victor
Segalen, Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall, and
JamesMichener,to namethe mostprominent.
But noneplayedas powerfula role in creatingan enduring vision of Tahition the world's imaginationas did the
Frenchpainter,Paul Gauguin.Gauguin'sinterestin Tahiti
was firstpiquedwhen he viewed exhibitsof colonial outposts at the 1889 ExpositionUniversellein Paris,and it
was laterreinforcedwhenhe readPierreLoti's Le Mariage
de Loti.In lettershe wroteto friends,he reportedhis affairs
with women broughtfrom the colonies (Gauguin1949:
118) anddescribedhis desireto "buya hut of the kindyou
saw at the UniversalExhibition... this wouldcost almost
nothing"(1949:142). Influencedby both colonial and romanticrepresentations,
he embarkedon a voyage thatallowed him to re-createthese representationsfor others.
Pennilessin Paris,he sailedto Tahitito live cheaplywhile
advancinghis careerandfulfillinghis dreams,settingcanvasses colorfullyablazewith his impressionsof Tahitiand
Tahitianwomen. It is importantto note thatGauguin'srelocationto Tahitiin 1891 was possible primarilybecause
he was a Frenchcitizen and Tahitiwas a Frenchcolony.
Although Gauguin's artistic accomplishmentsin Tahiti
twentieth century. At the outbreak of World War I,
Europe'sflourishingeconomy caused an increasein the
ties between Franceand Tahiti.The EFO exportedlocal
products,such as driedcoconut and vanilla,in exchange
for Europeanmanufacturedgoods. This rapideconomic
expansion requiredan increasingly larger work force.
Lured by images created in the literaryand art world,
French colonists flocked to Tahiti in great numbers.By
1911, therewere3,500 Frenchresidents(WheelerandCarillet 1997:23) among a Tahitian populationof 31,400
(Newbury1980:272).As colonistsstreamedin, imagesradiated out. In 1913, the EFO governmentproducedtheir
first postagestampof Polynesianinspiration-a Tahitian
womanwitha crownof flowerson herheadanda hibiscus
blossom behindher ear. With this one stamp,the idea of
Tahiti as beautiful,seductive,and feminine,but securely
underFrenchcontrol,was circulatedto the worldat large.
WorldWarII brought4,500 Americansoldiersto Bora
Bora in the Society Islands,which was selectedto be the
firstin a chainof refuelingstationsacrossthe Pacific.Bora
Bora, which previouslyhad no vehicles or paved roads,
was transformedby bulldozers,trucks,seaplanes,bombs,
ammunition,tents, and prefabbuildings(Kay 1997:219).
When soldiers returnedhome after the war, theirstories
about tropicalromancekindled imaginationsacross the
UnitedStates.Ever since,BoraBorahas been regardedas
one of the ultimateAmericantouristfantasies.
Stirringsof desire for emancipationfrom Francerumbled throughTahitiafterthe war. Pouvanaaa Oopa,from
the islandof Huahine,becamethe leaderof the Tahitianindependencemovement,servingin the TerritorialAssembly anddenouncingthe Frenchfor theirtreatmentof Tahitians as second-classcitizens. At the peak of his power,
however,his voice was silenced.He was convictedof conspiracyin a plotto burndownPapeeteandwas imprisoned,
first in Papeete(1958-60) and laterin France(1960-61),
andbannedfromreturningto Tahitifor eightyears.
In 1957, the name of the colony was changed to
Polyn6sieFrangaise.Planswere underwayfor still greater
changes.
were complex expressions of the convergence of European
decadence and French colonialism (Perloff 1995), he continues to be regarded as a symbol of the simple rejection of
European civilization and the embracing of South Seas
primitivism. Ever since Gauguin, European painters have
flocked to Tahiti to re-create Gauguin-like images on canvases of their own (Jacques Boullaire, Pierre Heyman, Jean
Masson, and Yves de Saint-Font, to name only a few).
These nineteenth-centurycolonial foundations, depicted
romantically in late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature and art, solidified and intensified in the
A major turning point in Tahitian colonial history occurred in the 1960s. Events took place that both deepened
France's political entanglement with its colony and broadened the worldwide demand for exotic images of French
Polynesia. It was the era in which nuclear testing and tourism came of age side-by-side. As seductive imagery became increasingly integral to the political economy of
French Polynesia, France was able to reap the bounty of
two centuries of these representations and use this to its
economic advantage. Prior to 1960, anticipating that Algeria might soon gain independence, France was preparingto
Mushroom Clouds, Tourism, and Technicolor
Visions
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transferits nucleartest site fromAlgeriato FrenchPolynesia. In 1963, a year after Algeria became independent,
PresidentCharlesde Gaulle establishedthe Centred'exp6rimentationsdu Pacifique (CEP) and officially announced that Moruroaand Fangataufa,two uninhabited
atollsin the TuamotuIslands(one of the five archipelagos
in FrenchPolynesia),would be the new test sites. In addiandsupportfacilitieswereestablishedin
tion,headquarters
Papeete,on the islandof Tahiti,wherea largeareaof coral
reef was reclaimedfor the constructionof new docks to
shelterand service the numerousshipsrequiredto support
and monitor the nuclear tests. While preparationswere
firmly underwayfor developing the nucleartesting program,anothermajorchangewas takingplace, namelythe
constructionof an internationalairportat Faa'a,a few kilometers down the road from Papeete, which opened in
1960.The presenceof the airportpermittedeasieraccess to
Tahitibothfor the government,whichhad begunto transfer equipmentandpersonnelin preparationfor the nuclear
testing program,and for tourists,who were in search of
Gauguin'sparadise.
The simultaneousarrivalof nucleartestingand tourism
servedto obscurethe intensityof the testingpreparations
from most residents.As nuclearsupplies and personnel
were channeledthroughthe airportand harboren routeto
the outerislandsof MoruroaandFangataufa,touristswere
also arrivingon internationalflights in recordnumbers.
Whereasonly 1,620 touristshad come to Tahitiin 1960, a
year later, when the airportwas open, 8,700 arrived.'8
Tourism,which is by far the most influentialindustryin
French Polynesia, provides the main avenue through
whichnon-Frenchmoneyis introducedintothe territory.19
In 1962, a yearafterthe airportwas operational,American film crews descendeduponTahitias well. Hollywood
glamorizedthe eventsof the mutinyon the HMSBountyin
a three-hourcolor film starringMarlonBrandoandTarita,
a Tahitianwoman. In contrastto an earlier,1935, blackand-whiteversion of the story that had been filmed in
Hawai'i(implyingthat"exotic"locationsareinterchangeable), the 1962 film was shot on location on Tahiti and
Bora Bora, bringingTahiti-in Technicolor-into movie
theatersaroundthe world.The film emphasizedthe natural
beautyof the islandsandthe physicalsplendorof Tahitians
and therebycontinuedto feed people's dreamsabout an
earthly paradise and sexual abandon. Technicolor fantasies
seemed to slip even closer within reach when, in real life,
Marlon Brando married Tarita and purchased Tetiaroa, a
picture-perfect atoll forty kilometers north of Tahiti. With
the new airportawaiting the arrival of tourists, an Office of
Tourism Development luring them in, hotels springing up
to accommodate them, and Hollywood's spectacle encouraging iridescent dreams, many forces were set in motion.
Travelers' fantasies could now be turned into realities with
the simple purchase of an airline ticket.
Whilethe worldcomfortablyembracedthisalluringimage of Tahitiin the mid-1960s, Frenchmilitarywereoccupied differently.They quietly,butcollusively,changedthe
name of Moruroa,which in Tahitianmeans "biglies," to
Mururoa,a wordwith no specialmeaning.20Francebegan
atmosphericexplosionson the atollin 1966,refusingto acquiesce to the 1963 agreement(by the UnitedStates,the
formerSoviet Union,andBritain)to haltatmospherictests
andto shiftinsteadto underground
testing.It was not until
1974 thatFrancemovedits testsbelow ground.21Moruroa,
as its Tahitiannameindicates,andlike the touristicimages
of nearbyislandsthat distractattentionfrom it, trulyembodies deep deception.It appearsneitherin the French
Polynesianphonebook noron airlineschedules,andis impossible for nongovernmentpeople to visit. On the one
hand,the governmentclaims that the testingposes absolutely no environmentalor healthdangers.Yet, Tahitians
who have workedon Moruroaall recountsimilarstoriesof
local banson the consumptionof fish fromthe lagoonand
coconutsfromthe land,andof the deathof peoplefollowing their illegal ingestion of these foods (Peto Firuu,
personal communication, 1995; Etienne Piha, personal
communication, 1995).22 It has also been mandatoryfor in-
dividualsto carryGeigercountersandwearspecialanti-radiationsuits while there(ConstanceCody, personalcommunication,1995). In spite of the government'spolicy of
putting a secrecy stamp on all local health statistics
(Danielssonand Danielsson1986:307),it was discovered
that,withina decadeaftertestingbegan,suchtypicallyradiation-induceddiseases as leukemia, thyroid cancers,
braintumors,andeye cataractsbeganto appearin alarming
numbers(Danielsson1986:165).
In 1992,FrenchPresidentFrangoisMitteranddeclareda
moratoriumon all testing, which was lifted by President
JacquesChirac in 1995. By the time tests were finally
stoppedin January1996, Francehad conducteda total of
tests in FrenchPoly45 atmosphericand 134 underground
nesia, with bombsup to two hundredkilotons,morethan
ten times the size of the bomb that destroyedHiroshima.
Each test cost an averageof two billion CFP23(U.S. $20
million)(Sancton1995:23).
The nucleartestingprogramand all its ramificationstotally transformedTahitieconomicallyand socially. In addition to pumping money into the territory for the testing
program, France injected extra funds and goods to encourage local acquiescence, generating a colonial dependency
relationship and artificial prosperity.24For example, in
1960, military spending in the territorywas 4% of the gross
domestic product, but by 1966 it rose sharply to almost
80%. In the 1950s, returnson exports were 90% of the cost
of imports, but by the early 1970s had slumped to only
10% (Henningham 1992:127-128). Government welfare
allocations also began in the 1960s, with the amounts given
and the categories of who qualifies steadily increasing over
KAHN
the years.Television,too, arrivedin 1966,the sameyearas
the firstatmosphericexplosion.
Tahiti'simportanceas the administrativeand economic
center of FrenchPolynesiacaused many people from the
outerislandsto migrateto Tahiti,attractedby jobs such as
buildingthe new harbor,airport,and hotels, and working
in the buddingtourismindustry.Like many towns in the
SouthPacific, Papeetewas transformedfrom a sleepy colonialporttown to a cosmopolitancity, almostdoublingits
populationbetween 1960 and 1970. Priorto CEP,most of
the populationhadfed itself by subsistenceagricultureand
fishing. Withina decadethe territorywas importingmost
of its food.25In the space of a single generation,manyTahitians were transformedinto a working-classpopulation
that had become almost completely dependent on the
money and goods broughtinto the territoryby France.
Land, too, slipped increasinglyout of Tahitians'control.
Some people,particularlythose who hadbeen educatedin
to sell titlesto their
France,took advantageof opportunities
land.The purchasers,oftenrealestateagents,thensold the
landto French,Chinese,and othernon-indigenousbuyers
(Tetiarahi1987:54). One woman describedthis spiraling
descentinto dependencyandthe relatedloss of land.
BeforeCEP,Tahitians
livedwell.Theyworkedin theirgardens.They wentfishing.Theybuilttheirhouses.Afterthe
firsttestin 1966Tahitians
becamedependent
onmoney.Now
theyneedmoneyin orderto live.Theybuytheirfood.They
buy cementand metalto buildtheirhouses.Tahitiansbuy
moreandmorethingsandhowcantheypayforeverything?
Theycan't.Theygo to thebankandgeta loan.Thenhowcan
theypaythe bankback?Theycan't.Aftera whilethe bank
comesandtakestheirlandandsells it. Whobuystheland?
Foreigners.Later,wheredo the Tahitianslive? They have no
land. No house. They end up living in a tiny shack.Tahitians
havegottenlazy.Theydon'tgrowtheirown foodanymore.
They buy it in the store.If they wantTahitianfood they buy it
in the market.I go to the marketevery Sundayto sell my food.
Do you know who buys it? Tahitians.Every week I get sad
when I see that.[KimTai Piha,personalcommunication,
1995]
The verbalpictureKim Tai paintedof her personalexperiencewith increasingdestabilizationis in starkcontrast
to the visual images of permanentsplendorthatare massproducedto enticethe worldat large.
The Power of a Camera
With the growinginterdependence
of France'spolitical
agenda,FrenchPolynesia'spoliticaleconomy,andthe representationof Tahitias paradise,it is not surprisingthatthe
productionof alluringimages has become a majorindustry.Lefebvrehas commentedon the destructiveabilitiesof
illusiveimagery.His wordsapplyto the situationin Tahiti.
Images fragment, they are themselves fragments, cutting
things up and rearrangingthem,d6coupageand montage,the
/
TAHITI INTERTWINED
15
artof image-making.
Illusionresidesin the artist'seye and
lens,on the writer'sblankpage.
gaze,in the photographer's
Thevisualworldplaysanintegralandintegrative,
activeand
andimposesit as
passive,partin it. It fetishizesabstraction
thenorm.Theimagekills.[(1974)1991:97]
In FrenchPolynesia,the Office of Tourismis the prime
and "kill."Their
producerof theseimages that"fragment"
images emphasize scenery-sandy beaches, blue skies,
colorfulfish, fancy hotels-rather thanpeople.26
In a 1994
move to gain morecontrol,GastonFlosse,the Presidentof
FrenchPolynesia,wrotea letterto all governmentagencies
forbiddingthem to use any images of FrenchPolynesia
thatwere not producedby the governmentagency Institut
de la Communication Audio-Visuelle (ICA) (Paul
Auz6py, personalcommunication,1995). The Office of
Tourismand ICA, however,are not the only agencies to
produceanddistributeimages.It is relativelyeasy for others to enterthe business,as long as they do not sell their
imagesto governmentagencies.
The individualwho monopolizesthe nongovernment
productionof photographicimages is Teva Sylvain, a
blond,blue-eyeddemi, who is the directorof Pacific PromotionTahiti.His seductiveimages of women,as well as
scenery, adornpostcards,calendars,posters,place mats,
coasters, address book covers, rulers,cigarette lighters,
books,stationery,andenvelopes.Severalof his imagesare
of Gauguin'spaintings.He creditshis father
reproductions
withhavinginspiredhis own outlook.
De Gaullesentmy father,AdolpheSylvain,to Indochina
to
fight,butwitha cameranota gun.Hisjob wasto educatethe
FrenchpeopleaboutIndochina.
Fromthere,he wasalsosent
to theSouthPacific.Again,he wentas a photographer.
Soon
afterhe arrivedin Tahitiin 1946he met a Tahitianwoman
whomhe latermarried.
He kepthis positionas a warcorrebut
in
hisnewsurroundspondent stayed Tahiti,documenting
father
became
thefirstjournalist
ingsin black-and-white.
My
to reallypublicizethe islandof Tahiti.He photographed
for
theKonTikiexpeditionandforLifemagazine.
By andby he
hadfourdaughters
andme. He neededto supporthis family
anddidso withhisphotographs.
Hewantedto showtheparadise aspectof Tahitianlife. He wasconsciousof thecontrast
betweentheTahitianimagesof a peacefullife andtheWesternatrocities
hestillcarriedwithhimfromthewar.Hephotographedonly those aspectsthat portrayedparadise-the
childlike,simple,carefreesideof life.[TevaSylvain,personal
communication,1995]
In 1970, Teva, then sixteen years old, followed his father's footsteps, creating images of his own fetishized view
of Tahitian life. Postcard production, which he started in
1974, represents the largest part of his business.27Every
year, one million of his postcards are purchased in French
Polynesia, to begin their journey all over the globe. Although he decides on the images, he is guided by sales statistics. As Teva explained to me, "I create images that I
think people want to buy. I come up with an idea and then
16
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGISTa
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*
MARCH 2000
test it on the market.If animagesells well, I producemore.
If something doesn't sell, I take it off the market."His
computerprogramtracks sales of every postcardimage
andarrangesthemaccordingto theirmarketpopularity.28
Teva elaboratedon the marketingstrategiesspecifically
for the postcardimages of women.29"Mostof the women
are not fully Tahitianbecause the men who visit Tahiti
want a woman thatthey have in theirhead or in theirlibido,"he confidedto me. "Theywantone who looks like
womenthey areusedto. Theydon'twanther skinto be too
dark,her nose too broad,orherthighstoo strong."As a result,the women on the postcardshave an assortmentof genetic backgrounds.As Tevapulleda few postcardsoff the
top of a stack on his desk,he told me, "Forexample,#911
is French, #976 is Tahitian,#977 is demi," and so on.
"Lookat #911. She is one hundredpercentFrench.But I
putthe crownof leaves on herheadanda coconutleaf basket in her hands to give her a Tahitianlook. That's all it
takes. Other than those props, there is nothing Tahitian
about her" (Figure 2). He explained,"I simply produce
what people want because,like my father,I have to feed
my family."Althoughrationalizingthathe was only manipulatingthe market,he seemedveryawarethat,in doing
so, he was also reconfiguringthe very image of Tahitiand
Tahitianwomen. He admits that "the women of one's
dreamsthat one admiresin my lascivious poses are not
foundon everystreetcorner"(Sylvain1994:64).
AlthoughTeva dominatesthe market,there are others
who, like him, play a majorrole in producingimages of
Tahiti. Oc6ane Production,which has been in existence
since the 1970s, producesand distributesboth visual images and music videos of FrenchPolynesia.EricLaroche,
a Frenchman,is the generaldirectorof Oc6aneProduction.
Accordingto him, his business produces"every type of
Polynesianimageavailable."
Wehavestockimagesinthreecategories:
aerial,land,andunderwater.
Theunderwater
at
imagesarethe mostimportant
themoment.We sellthemeverywhere
andanywhere.
Weare
theonlyoneswhosellinternationally.
We sell to cablechannelsin EuropeandAmerica.We sellthevideosin all thehotels andstoresin FrenchPolynesia.We sell our videosin
manylanguages.Theimagesarethe same,butthe language
of the narration
changes:English,French,German,Italian,
andJapanese.
Anyonecanbuythem.Wearethemostimportantproducers
of theseimageson themarket.Ourimagesare
notjournalistic,
buttouristic.
Weproducewhattouristswant.
Mr.Navarro,my cameraman,
andI togetherdecidewhatwe
wantto show.We showonlywhatis beautiful.
We showthe
sea, the mountains,songs, dances,and traditionalthings.
Touristswantimagesof thingstheyhaveseen.[EricLaroche,
1995]
personalcommunication,
The Office of Tourism,as well as entrepreneurslike
Teva Sylvain and Eric Laroche,have enormouscapacity
and capabilityto createanddisseminateimages of Tahiti.
The consistencyof theirintentandthe forthrightnesswith
r
:.-:.___
._- 1.:
-~----
i:I__:
Figure 2. #911, Collection "Filles des mers du sud"/"Girls of the
South Seas" collection, by Teva Sylvain, photo, 1994, Pacific Promotion,Tahiti.Photo courtesyof Pacific Promotion.
which they discuss their motivationis remarkable.Teva,
like his father,wants to help other men find a Tahitian
woman, even if she only exists on a postcardor on the
pages of a calendar.In perpetuatinghis father'sdream,he
encouragesothersto hold onto theirdreamsas well. Several times he emphasizedhow importantit is to "keepthe
mythalive."
Forthe pasttwo centuries,anduntilrecently,thed6coupageandmontageof imagesof Tahitiforthe worldat large
has mainlybeen by the French,Americans,anddemi.Althoughthe motives for producingseductiveTahitianimageryhaveincreasedin economicandpoliticalcomplexity
(for example,fromBougainville'swish to provethe existence of Rousseau'snoble savage, to Gauguin'sdesire to
vivify the women andhutshe saw at the colonialexhibits,
to the Office of Tourism'seconomicneed to lurein tourists), the images have remainedunimaginativelysimilar.
Whathappens,though,when the productionof imagesis
removedfromthis economicallyandpoliticallymotivated
sphereand put,instead,into the handsof Tahitians,themselves partof the largerentangleddialogueaboutTahiti?
Whathappenswhen the turquoiseveil of paradiseis lifted
KAHN
and,instead,unexpected,morerealistic,andeven negative,
images are revealedand disseminatedaroundthe world?
Examiningsuch a situationsheds furtherlight on just how
integralto the colonial agenda these images and image
fragmentsare. Examiningthe dialectic between space as
perceivedby Tahitiansandspaceas conceivedby outsiders
also enlightensourunderstanding
of how a Tahitianthirdspaceemerges.
/
TAHITI INTERTWINED
17
On June 13, 1995, French PresidentJacques Chirac
ended formerPresidentFrangoisMitterand'smoratorium
on nucleartestingby declaringthathe would resumetesting beforethe end of the year.The rationalewas thatadditional tests would allow for the perfectionof simulation
and computermodelingtechniques.Withindays of PresidentChirac'sannouncement,
anti-nuclearprotestingbegan
on a scale thatwas unprecedentedin the historyof French
mePolynesia,spreadingto all majorislands.International
dia respondedswiftly. Writers,televisioncrews, andradio
reportersfrom all over the world descendedupon Tahiti.
Greenpeace'santi-nuclearship, the Rainbow WarriorHII
(the original Rainbow Warriorhad been blown up by
Frenchagentsin Aucklandin July 1985, killing one crew
member),left New Zealandfor Tahitiwith aninternational
crew representingten differentcountries.
A recordnumberof protesters(15,000-20,000 by some
accounts)took to the streets in Papeete on June 29, demandinga referendumon the resumptionof nucleartesting. These particularprotestswere initiatedby OscarTemaru, the mayor of Faa'a and the leader of Tavini
Huira'atira,the pro-independenceparty.Carryingukuleles, people sat down in the streets.Trafficcame to a halt.
Papeetewas paralyzed(Gluckman1995).Protestersset up
a blockadealong the main access roadsto the city, which
lasteduntilJuly 2, the 29th anniversaryof the firstnuclear
test at Moruroa.In the wordsof one crewmemberon board
the RainbowWarriorII, "Thecommitmentof thepeopleis
amazing-sitting all day through35 degree [centigrade]
heat, and then sleeping on hardasphaltall night"(Leney
1995). Protestsagaineruptedon July 14, which coincided
with the Frenchholidayof Bastille Day and the heightof
Tahiti's annualHeiva (a month-longfestival thatfeatures
demonstratedin Chile, and held an anti-nuclearrock concert in Belgium (Gluckman1995).Even in France,former
PresidentMitterandpublicly condemnedPresidentChirac's decision to resumetesting.Yet, in spite of local and
global protesting,the governmentsof both France and
FrenchPolynesiaremainedunresponsive.
Instead,PresidentFlosse invited political leaders, includingOscarTemaru(whorefusedto go), to a "picnic"on
MoruroaJuly 16-18. A few days later,La Dpe^chede Tahiti, the main newspaperin FrenchPolynesia, printeda
two-page spreadaboutMoruroaand Fangataufawith the
headline"Fishfromthe LagoonareDelicious."The article
includedphotosof governmentofficialsdrinkingcoconuts,
catchingtuna,and posing in frontof fifty barbecuedlobsters.Most prominentwas a photoof PresidentFlosse taking a relaxingdip in Moruroa'slagoon.
In August, severalmore,but somewhatsmaller,peaceful protestmarchestook place in Papeete.The largestwas
organized by the Eglise Evang6lique de Polyn6sie
whose president,JacquesIhorai,prayedfor an
Franqaise,30
end to the testing.As Septemberapproached,the monthin
which the nuclear tests were scheduled to begin, again
hundredsof journalistsfrom all over the world arrivedin
FrenchPolynesia.
At 11:30on the morningof September5, 1995, without
priorpublic warning,"operationthetis"was carriedout at
Moruroa.The explosionwas only slightlysmallerthanthat
at Hiroshima.It generatedtemperatures
of severalhundred
million degrees and pressuresof several million atmospheres.The instrumentsrecordingthe explosiontransmitted datafor only a billionthof a second beforethey were
destroyedby the blast(Sancton1995:27).
Thatnight,on the televisionnews, a crowdof reporters
fired questions at the director of CEP, Admiral Jean
Lichere,who appearedin his crispwhitenavaluniformbedecked with medals.He explainedmatter-of-factlythatat
11:30they hadreceivedordersfromParisto pushthe button. He saidthattherehadbeenno noise,just a minorshaking of the groundforthreeseconds,some slightagitationin
the sea with waves and geysers,and then everythingwas
calm and "backto normal."He explainedthatthe test was
"forthe stabilityof the world,to insuresecurityfor everyone," anddeclaredthat"it will have no significantimpact
dancing, singing, and sporting competitions, arts and
crafts, beauty contests, feasting, and partying). The protests
were so disruptive that they caused the festivities to be
postponed by a week.
Because of near universal moral opposition to nuclear
testing in the 1990s, as well as the media's aggressive coverage of the situation, the entire world was suddenly listening and responding. People burned croissants and stomped
on French bread in the United States, picketed French restaurants in Hong Kong, bombed one French consulate and
delivered a truck load of manure to another in Australia,
on the environment." When asked by the angry reporters
why he did not test the bomb in France, he responded with
the standardphrase, "But this is France!"He then deflected
further inquiries by claiming, "One can't even call this a
bomb. It's nuclear physics."
Although the Moruroa lagoon gradually quieted down,
the explosion sent lasting waves of rage and indignation
throughout French Polynesia and the world at large. The
following day, 36 hours of uninterruptedrioting, burning,
and looting erupted in Papeete and nearby Faa'a.3i' It
started when some thirty Tahitian women began an anti-
The "Events" of September 6, 1995
18
AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST *
MARCH 2000
VOL. 102, No. 1 *
nuclearsit-in on the airportrunwayand gatheredmomentum when several hundred Tahitian men joined in
(Strokirch1997:228).When police fired tear gas into the
crowd,the confrontationescalated.Protestersdrovea bulldozer throughthe airport,demolishinginternalwalls and
shatteringwindows, before setting fire to the terminal
building,makingit unsafefor commercialplanesto landor
take off for severaldays. After wreckingthe airport,the
demonstratorsmoved into downtown Papeete, torching
buildings,smashingstorewindows,andlootingthe stores.
More than 120 cars were overturnedand set afire.Stones,
steel barricades,garbagebins, and bottles were thrownat
the High Commissioner'soffice. Police triedto surround
and arrestthe demonstrators,
manyof whom were thrown
in jail. Additionalmilitarywere broughtin from France
andNew Caledonia.Miraculously,only40 peoplewereinjured,althoughdamagewas estimatedaroundfourbillion
CFP (U.S. $40 million).
A phrasethatwas oftenusedin the mediaduringthisexplosive periodwas thatthe images of the riots had "gone
on world tour."And, indeed,they had. For example,the
words "Falloutin Paradise"gracedthe cover of the internationaleditionof Timemagazine(September18, 1995).
The cover storyfeaturedphotographsof Tahitiandemonstratorskickingand clubbinga Frenchpolicemanwho lay
writhingon the ground(Figure3). The governmentblamed
* COVER STORY
France'sresumption of nuclear tests unleashes riots in Tahitiand condemnation around the world
P
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Figure 3. Time,InternationalEdition, September18, 1995, pp. 22-23, photo by FrangoisMori.AP/WorldWide Photos.
KAHN
foreignreportersfor the worldwidedisseminationof these
"ugly"images.Not only was theirdistributionout of governmentcontrol,but the images themselveswere in complete contrastto what the Frenchgovernmentwantedthe
worldto see. News reporters'photosthattraveledout into
the world--pictures of men throwing rocks, torching
buildings,and clubbingpolicemen-were a far cry from
the picturesof paradisethatfor so long hadbeen purposefully createdand circulated.And what was strikingabout
them, in contrastto the beautiful,peaceful,feminineimages,wasthattheyhadgreateruniversalappeal.Theywere
of angry,and completelyordinary,people. Althoughthe
governmentfound no need to respondto the relatively
peacefulprotestsand blockadesof JuneandJuly,they respondedwith great agitationnow. As this profusionof
negativeimagesspunoutof theircontrol,governmentofficials were visibly anxiousand attemptedto suppresstheir
production.The seniorreporterforRFO(thetelevisionsta-
A
Tia
I
Mua
et
in
les
/
TAHITI INTERTWINED
19
ddpendantistesr
la
DEPE
TAHIT
D
NOIR
CHE
apr
o
i:
W
Va~oportoi
ce
0
e
nuven
mati
ietsorssrr
desreponabes
utu
es6mote
the government's
deliberate
tion)described
politicaltactics.
I was at the airportwhenit was burning.I andotherswere
evacuated
fromthesceneandtakenbackto Papeete.WhenI
gotthereI wantedto takemycameraandgo intotownto film
theburning
of Papeetefortelevision.Instead,RFOforbidme
fromgoing.Theydecidedto shutdownthe officeat 8 PM.
Thiswas unprecedented.
Thatdecisionwas 100%political.
[ErickMonod,personal
communication,
1995]
Missiles of Death in their Mother's Womb
Duringthe following weeks and months,a battleescalatedover the controlof image manipulation.Exactlyone
week afterthe "events"of September6, La DDp&che
de
Tahitimadedirectreferenceto an imageproblemwhen,on
the frontpage,it featureda pictureof a postcard,jaggedly
rippedin two, with the main headline"ThePostcardhas
been Tom."Below the picturewas a captionthatjuxtaposed symbolsof Frenchwealth againstvisions of Third
Worldpoverty.
Good-byecows, calves, and broods[a Frenchidiom for
wealth] ... after the world-wide reportingabout the riots,
televisionstationscreatedan imageof a shantytown.
These
imagesmakeTahitilookworsethanRioorHaiti.Visitorsobviouslycanceledtheirvacationsen masse.Theforeignmedia's orchestrationof the problemsand certainjournalists'
manipulationof the events are complete.[LaDipiche de Tahiti 1995]
Ironically, a cleverly crafted counter manipulation of
the situation by French-controlled media, such as RFO and
La Dipiche de Tahiti, was just heating up. Whereas the
nuclear test on September 5 had received minimal media
coverage, the demonstrators' reaction on September 6
launched a media explosion. A special 20-page supplement in La Dipdche de Tahiti appeared with the ominous
headline "Black Wednesday in Tahiti" (Figure 4). Page
:hiF
~
(:
La
aioritO
Figure4. Le Mercredi
noirde TahitilBlack
Wednesday
in Tahiti,La
Dip&chede Tahiti, September13, 1995, p. 29. Photo courtesyof La
Dipeche de Tahiti.
afterpage featuredimages of charredbuildings,shattered
glass, dismemberedstoremannequinslying in the streets,
Tahitianshurlingrocks,Tahitianslightingfires,andpolice
with weapons.Alongsidethe photoswerecaptionssuchas
"Airline companies, travel agencies, and hotels are all
powerlessas touristsshun our destination!"(1995a) The
same images thathad been "manipulated"
by foreignmedia to show the worldthe ugly side of paradisewere now
used by government-controlled
mediato threatenTahitians
into submission.
Yet, there seemedto be a feeling of empowermenton
the partof manyTahitianswhen projectingtheirown images out to the world.Unlikepreviousimagesproducedby
outsidersof a romanticizedTahiti,theseimagesweretruly
of Tahitiansas they lived in theirworld.They alloweda
voice thatwas otherwisesilencedto be heard.As one man
said, "Theriotsmay not be the best way for us to express
ourselves,butwhenwe triedpeacefulmarches,no one listened. The French express themselves powerfullywith
their bomb.Now we are speakingand being heard"(Hiti
Gooding,personalcommunication,1995).
20
AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST *
VOL. 102, No. 1
*
MARCH 2000
The riotswere not the only formof communication.Another,less visual,Tahitianway of expressingthedenunciation of nucleartesting, and of Frenchpolitics in general,
was in the compositions(solely in Tahitianlanguage)of
Tahitian songwriters and singers.32Angelo Neuffer
Ari'itai,one of the leadingsingersfor the youngergeneration,releaseda cassetteat thistime.The wordsto one song,
"AtomicPoison,"juxtaposeimages of a destructivebomb
with thoseof an otherwisenourishingland.
Thelandis poisoned,thepeoplearepoisoned,the sea is poisoned,
As is thelanguageof ourleaders,whoclaimthatthebombis
notharmful.
Theairis poisoned,thefruitsof thelandarepoisoned,thechildrenarepoisoned,
thatthebombis
Asis theconscienceofthosewholie,claiming
notharmful.
Atomicbomb,we don'twantyou.
Youareunwelcome
here,onthisisland,inthisland.
Atomicbomb,we don'twantourlandtobepolluted.
Atomicbomb,we don'twantdeathhere,onthisisland,in this
land.
Atomicbomb,go awayfromhere,fromthisisland,fromthis
land.
Afterthe firstbomb,therewas anotherpeacefulmarch,
organized once more by the Eglise Evang6lique de
Polyn6sie Franqaiseand led by its president,Jacques
Ihorai.Songs (such as the one above),prayers,and silence
wereused to try and sway the government.The churchbecame a powerfulandunifyingvoice of protestagainstnuIn late September,JacquesIhoraiandRalph
cleartesting.33
Teinaore, the secretarygeneral of the church, flew to
Franceto tryto convincePresidentChiracto cease the testing. IhoraideclaredthatFrancedid not have the right to
explodebombsin the nourishingwombof the motherland.
Using an image he evoked often, even when speakingto
Tahitianaudiences,he explainedthat Tahitiansconsider
the landto be theirmotherwho nourishesthemandthatthe
bomb is like a missile of deathin theirmother'swomb (La
Dp&echede Tahiti 1995b:21).Even thoughTahitianshad
generallyshownlittleconcernaboutthe mythical,touristic
images of Tahiti,they reactedpassionatelywhen others'
behaviorviolatedtheirown notionof place.When bombs
were lodged and exploded deep within their land, their
sense of place was profoundlydisturbed.Preciselybecause
landis seen as nourishing-a place to burythe placentaof
one's child-the buryingof a bomb in the land seemed a
particularlyoffensive assault.When Ihoraicomparedthe
nucleartestingto the lodgingof a missile in theirmother's
womb, he spoke abouta Tahitianexperienceof place in a
way thatpostcardsandguidebooksneverdo.
Soon thereafter,on Sunday,October1, at 1:30in the afternoon,the second bomb was exploded.The detonation
had been carefullytimed to coincide with the hour when
most Tahitianswould be in church,a subtleattackon the
church'speaceful but powerfulanti-nuclearstance.This
time the televisioncoveragewas quickandefficient,surgically andcynicallywedgedbetweentwo itemsof minorinterest.Therewereno riots.34
As time went on, and more tests occurred,the numbers
of touristskept dropping,especially amongJapaneseand
Americans. By November, hotels that usually had
80-100% occupancyhad 10-20%. The large Nara Hotel
on Bora Bora, which dependedon Japanesetourism,was
almost empty.35Whereaspreviouslythere had been two
weekly flightsfromTokyo,now therewas one with only a
handfulof passengers.Tahiti had slippedfrom turquoise
Technicolorto blackandgray.
"Everything Is All Right Again"
As nuclear tests continued on the average of one a
month for five months, the anxiety intensifiedfor those
people who were well entrenchedin an economicsystem
thatdependedon tourism-generated
income.Tourismsuda
and
became
denly
rallyingcry
politicallever.In an interview aboutthe declineof tourism,PatrickRobsonfromthe
Office of Tourismsaid, "Thecancellationsare surelydue
to the riots [notthe nucleartests]..... Stepby step,we will
launcha campaignto replaceourimagethatwas shattered"
(La Dp&echede Tahiti 1995a:24).The campaignto manipulatethe imageswas calculatedandunabashed.
Gilles Tefaatau,the supervisorof airportoperationsand
the presidentof GIEAnimation,the branchof the Officeof
Tourism that oversees tourist activities within French
Polynesia,explainedthatafterthe tests were over in January 1996, therewouldbe a massivecampaignto recapture
the market.He said, "The reasontourismis down is because people saw picturesof riotingand burning.In order
to rid themof these images, we need to replacethese with
new, positiveimages.We need to do the samethatthe foreign reportersdid recentlyduringthe protesting,but using
the oppositeimages"(Gilles Tefaatau,personalcommunication,1995).
SuzanneLau-Chonfont,who supervisesstatisticsat the
Office of Tourism,discussedthe overseas(Europe,Asia,
andthe UnitedStates)marketingstrategies.
Now, becauseof the riotsandnucleartests,thereis a consciouschangein marketing.
Therewill be counter-marketing
in anattempt
to capture
thosepeoplewhocanceledtheirreservations.Thisnew marketing
will showpositiveimagesand
will try to communicate
the messagethateverythingis all
rightagain.People think,for example,thatthe airportburned
to the ground,but that isn't the case. The images will show
that the airporthas been rebuilt.They will illustratethatthe
outerislandsweren'ttouchedby the problemsandthatnothing happened.One of the thingsthatwill be highlightedmore
now is the sea, the sun, and over-waterbungalows.[Suzanne
Lau-Chonfont,personalcommunication,1995]
KAHN
At aboutthe same time, a promotionalcampaignwith a
budget of 545 million CFP (U.S. $5.45 million) was
launchedin Franceto offertourists"themostbeautifulpresent in the world--Tahiti."A Frenchsinger,Antoine,was
to "cometo the rescue."He was slottedfor 250 radiospots,
all day long, seven days a week, for several weeks.
Throughseductivesong, he would ask people to join him
in Tahiti,emphasizingthe legendaryTahitianhospitality,
the charmand beautyof the naturalenvironment,and the
profusionandqualityof touristactivities.Tahitiwas to become "thepearlof the Pacific."
PresidentFlosse participatedenergeticallyin the campaign. Imagininga Polynesianlandscapepopulatedwith
Frenchpersonalities,he denouncedthe protestersas "those
who want to fade the colors of Gauguin,extinguishthe
voice of JacquesBrel, and obliteratethe memoryof PaulEmile Victor"(Didier 1995:21). He said, "We want our
visitorsto know thatPolynesiaoffersitself to them. ... We
are proudto have succeededin unitingthe naturalattraction of the South Seas with the security of the western
world... the objectof thepresentcampaignis to makethis
betterknown"(Didier 1995:21).As partof his long-term
planhe purchaseda new luxury,320-passengercruiseship
to tour the Society Islands, and named it the MS Paul
Gauguin.It was launchedin 1998 andadvertisedas taking
touriststo "worldsso breathtaking
even the wordparadise
seems inadequate"(magazineadvertisementby Radisson
Seven Seas Cruises,1998).36
Althoughthe Frenchsaw tourismandits "new"marketing images as coming to the rescue,the view of tourismis
quite differentfrom the perspectiveof most Tahitians.As
with much else, their responseto tourismis, and always
has been, filtered through their understandingof land.
Tourism has taken their land, destroyed their fishing
grounds, and tapped into water sources without giving
them much in return.37They expresstheiroutragethrough
the legal system where,in Papeete,for example,one-third
of all courtcases pertainto land(Tetiarahi1987:46).They
also communicatetheirfrustrationand angerin symbolic
actionsthat speak about,and through,land.For example,
Tahitianshave refused to sell land that provides access
routes to hotels, have blocked hotel water sources, and
have even burneddown hotels. One of the fanciesttourist
accommodations on Huahine, built on prime land and
along favored fishing grounds, ignored and rebuffed local
residents. When the manager wanted to import staff from
France, food from Papeete, and souvenir shell necklaces
from the Philippines, Tahitians spoke through land, a powerful force that cannot easily be ignored. As tourists were
driven in the hotel van to their $500 per night over-water
bungalows, they bounced painfully into gaping potholes in
a dirt road that provided the only land access to the hotel.
The Tahitian owners of the land quietly refused to maintain
it. The same hotel forbid local Tahitians, other than those
/
TAHITI INTERTWINED
21
employedby the hotel,fromwalkingon the hotel grounds.
When one womanand her friendwere askedto leave, she
responded,"No, this is our land, not yours. We belong
here, not you. You're the one who has to leave" (Turia
Gooding,personalcommunication,1995).
Tahiti Intertwined
Foucault,Lefebvre,and Soja have all theorizedabout
spaces/placesandhow they combinenumerouscontradictions andambiguitiesthat,whenunderstoodtogether,generate a complex thirdspace.Here, following their lead, I
have exploredTahitias a place thatembracessuch ambiguities. I have examined a wide range of beliefs, representations,andevents,as well as ways in whichthey intersect and interact.The list includeselementsas seemingly
diverseas ancientchants;postcards;the imprisonmentof
Pouvanaaa Oopa;videos of what touristscrave;colonial
changesin a land tenuresystem;a Hollywoodfilm about
the mutinyon the HMS Bounty;peacefulprotests;eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
Europeanimagery of the
SouthPacific;rioting,burning,and looting;mediaphotos
of PresidentFloss relaxingin Moruroa'slagoon;the lyrics
of an anti-nuclearsong;the Office of Tourism'smarketing
strategies;land claims in court;cruiseships;beliefs about
placentasand umbilicalcords; Gauguin;potholes;a nucleartestingprogram;andmuchmore.
Only when eludingthe politics of polarityand examining variousrealmstogetherdo the details shed light on a
lived, or third,space that is generatedfrom the dialectic,
the set of relationsin which we live. Indeed,they all involve, underpin,presuppose,generate,reflect, influence,
and expandupon one another.Exploringthe relationship
and tension between local understandingsof place and
dominant,mass-mediatedrepresentationsallows for the
emergenceof a thirdspacethatis both real and imagined,
immediateand mediated.Whetherquietly coexisting, or
violentlycolliding, local Tahitianperspectivesand global
politicalagendasarenot separate,independentlyoperating
realms.They are in constant,daily, intertwineddialogue.
On the one hand,visualrepresentations
createa meta-lanwhile
to
the
at large,discourworld
that,
guage
speaking
local
inhabitants
from
ages
participatingin the discourse.
Yet, local voices have theirown powerfulmodes of communicating and, with access to the media, may even end up
as a media centerpiece.
Tahitians, on the whole, do not communicate their feelings and ideas about their place with images of turquoise
lagoons or bare-breastedwomen on postcards and posters,
or in magazines and guidebooks.38Instead, they communicate in nonvisual ways that are rooted in a reciprocal relationship with land. They take pride in ancient chants about
the historical importance of land. They think about burying
their babies' placentas in the earth to insure their children's
well-being. They research their land rights and go to court
22
AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 102, No. 1
*
MARCH 2000
to file landclaims.And whentheirsense of place is threatened-not the postcardimage of paradisebutthe nurturing
abilities of land-they speak eloquently. They respond
with petition signatures,protestmarches,popularsongs,
purposefulpotholesand, when all else fails, a fire set to a
hotel, an airport,or even the capitalcity. All of these acts
communicateunmistakably,as one woman said in words,
"Thisis ourland,notyours."
In contrast,the meta-languagethat speaksto the world
at large speakswith a somewhatforkedtongue.Idealized
speakpastTahitiansin a languageof visual
representations
that
littleto the local population.But,at the
means
imagery
same time, these images speakto, and profoundlyimpact,
Tahitians'dailylives. Tahitias paradiseis not a benignimage. Indeed,the confiningwalls on which the images are
tracedandretracedcreatea claustrophobicenclosureof another sort for Tahitians.Althoughthese images were first
createdby romanticimaginationsto transportEuropeansto
anotherworld,they soon became willfully employedas a
politicalandeconomictool to servecolonialagendas,to attracttouristsandtheirmoneyin orderto supportthe ruling
class, and to distractthe worldfrom noticingnuclearatrocities. By now they havebecome an integralandindispensablecomponentof FrenchPolynesia'spoliticaleconomy.
It is clearly the case in French Polynesia that representationsof place are enmeshedin politics, and thathuman lives are ensnaredin the politics of representation.
One is "neveroutsiderepresentation-orratheroutsideits
politics"(Foster 1983:xv).Images may become weapons
of sorts, used to beguile, blind, pacify, incite, injure,or
control.While superficiallyseeming to reveal one place,
images may, in fact, serve to conceal a differentplace.
Postcardsof bare breastsdistractattentionfrom nuclear
tests. Guidebookphotosof colorfulfish dartingin crystalline water keep one from noticing governmentclean-up
crews who disposeof trashby shovelingit into the sea.
Tahitians,such as those in Fetunaor Faie, of course,do
not live in picturesqueways that matchup with touristic
representationsof Tahiti (see Cizeron and Hienly 1983).
Today, only a few years afterthe events describedin this
article,people in FetunaandFaie still go abouttheirdaily
lives muchas before.Garbageis still plowedintothe sea in
Fetuna.Touristsare still broughtto see the eels in Faie.
Yet, the thirdspacethat emerges at the intersectionof
worldwidepolitics,mass media,andlocal beliefs is where
Tahitians,in bothFetunaandFaie, live theirsociallife on a
daily basis.For example,the eventsof September1995 allowed Tahitiansto be heardmoreclearlythanever before.
Nucleartestinggeneratedanti-nuclearprotesting.Ugly images infiltratedthe world. The governmentpanickedand
took measuresthat enragedTahitianseven more. Today,
there is an increasing Tahitian involvement in proindependencepolitics. As France'sinternationalpower is
challengedand its "empire"shrinks,the remainingcards
France holds-including Tahiti-assume heightenedim-
portance.The recentforce defrappe of Franceas a declining world powerin the mid-1990scontrastssharplywith,
but at the same time opensa spacefor, a greaterdesirefor
independencein France'sdependentterritory.
The Tahitianthirdspacethathas emergedin this discussion supportsthe ideathatspacecan no longerbe seen as a
fixed entity, or even as an entitythat is explainablefrom
one or anotherpointof view. And, as long as anthropologists continueto look atplacefromone or anotherperspective--either as representedby outsidersor as generated
from within-place will remainuncomplicatedand untheorized.Instead,as Lefebvrehas concluded,space might
betterbe seen as a medium,a milieu,an intermediary.
morethanthetheatre,the
Spacehas nowbecomesomething
or
of
action.
disinterested
Spacecanno longer
stage setting,
as anobjectdistinctfromthe
be lookeduponasan"essence,"
to a logicof itsown.
asanswering
pointof viewof "subjects,"
It is doubtIs spacea medium?A milieu?An intermediary?
less all of these,butits roleis less andless neutral,moreand
andas goal,as meansandas
moreactive,bothas instrument
of spaceis a generativeprocess,with
end. The production
andmultiplicities,
variations,pluralities
disjuncdisparities,
[Lefebvre
tions, imbalances,conflictsand contradictions.
(1974)1991:410-411]
Tahiti,as we have seen, is all of these. Ancestralland,
tourist postcard,and nucleartest site, Tahiti comprises
overlappingand often contradictoryfields of experience,
andintervention.It is a complex andinterrepresentation,
woven, dynamic and intertwined,historicaland spatial,
generativeprocess.
Notes
Researchin FrenchPolynesiawas conAcknowledgments.
ductedover a ten-monthperiodduringthreetripsin 1994,
1995,and 1996.I thankthe FulbrightProgram,the Maxand
Lotte Heine Philanthropic
Fund,and the AmericanPhilosophicalSocietyforhavingmadetheresearchfinanciallypossible. In FrenchPolynesiamanyfriendsfacilitatedmy work,
mostnotablythe familiesof EdouardandKimTai Piha,Hiti
and TuriaGooding,Peto and MarietteFiruu,and Dorothy
Levy.I amalsogratefulto TevaSylvain,ErickMonod,Gilles
andEricLarochefor their
Tefaatau,SuzanneLau-Chonfont,
assistance.Myhusband,RichardL.Taylor,notonlyaccompaniedme to thefield,buthelpedin thegatheringof dataas well
as withtheformulation
of myideas.Anearlierdraftof thispaper benefitedgreatlyfromthe commentsof OscarBarreraNunez,StevanHarrell,MichaelHerzfeld,JocelynLinnekin,
ElizabethNotar,MargaretRodman,BrunoSaura,Maureen
reviewers.
Schwarz,KathleenStewart,andanonymous
1. Otherscholars,like bell hooksandHomiBhabha,also
use the termthirdspace,butdo so in slightlydifferentways.
Bell hooks(1990)choosesa marginalspacethatis the locationof radicalopennessandpossibility,a spaceone comesto
throughstruggle.Bhabha(1990, 1994) uses the term for
spacesof resistanceopenedat the marginsandfirmlyrooted
in theexperienceof postcoloniality.
KAHN
2. See Dorst (1989), Trask (1993), and Vickers (1989), as
only a few of many examples.
3. See Kahn (1995), Mitchell (1989), Pemberton (1994),
and Rodman(1993).
4. See, for example, Basso (1996), Feld and Basso (1996),
Jackson(1995), and Stewart(1996).
5. Although a body of literatureexists thatdiscusses the semanticdifferencesbetweenspace andplace (see Casey 1996),
I choose to circumventthis issue. Feeling that place is a socially createdand defined space, I use the terms somewhatinterchangeably.
6. See, for example, Claessen (1994), Daws (1980), Day
(1986), Despoix (1996), Margueron(1989), Nicole (1993),
Rennie (1995), Ritz (1983), and Smith (1960, 1992).
7. The situationin Tahitiis far from a simplifiedopposition
of Frenchvs. Tahitian.As Panoff (1989) states, thereis extensive genetic and culturalcross-breedingwithin the population.
Whetherone refersto oneself as French,demi, Chinese, Tahitian, Ma'ohi (the Tahitianword for a native person),and so on
is only loosely relatedto genetic make-up.Instead,it can be a
political statement. The terms French or demi, on the one
hand, equate roughly with those who are upper class. The
terms Tahitianor Ma'ohi, on the other hand, usually refer to
people who are lower class. Politics, not only genetics, can determine one's outlook. It is not uncommon, for example, to
find someone whose mother or father is 100% French, and
who not only refers to himself as Tahitianbut even refuses to
speak Frenchor eat Frenchfood.
8. "Ask what FrenchPolynesia is or what it consists of and
many people would have some difficulty in giving you an answer. Ask about Tahiti, however, and a vision of a beautiful
tropicalisland rising from a deep-blue sea immediatelymaterializes on the map. The realityis thatTahiti is just one island
in one of the five islandgroupswhich make up FrenchPolynesia" (Wheelerand Carillet1997:10).
9. Other, but less recent, figures have been considerably
lower (see Aldrich 1993:114; Bresson 1993:27; and Henningham 1992:155 for figures from the late 1980s).
10. See Chesneaux(1991), who sees Franceas a mid-sized
world power tryingto createitself as a majorworld power.To
describe France's deployment as "colonialism," he says,
misses the point.
11. According to Spitz (1991), demi are politically more
dangerous than the French because, unlike the French, they
are thereto stay.
12. See Feld (1996) and Kahn (1996) for other Pacific Island examples.
13. Throughoutthis article, all informationthat I received
in Tahitianor French,whetherby interviewingindividualsor
seeing or hearinginformationin the media, has been translated
into English. The translationsaremy own.
14. This translationis from the Tahitian.When expressed
in French,however, the referencesto ancienttimes andthe political messages for today's younger generation are hidden.
My English translationof the Frenchversion is as follows:
Huahine,where the northwind blows
Huahine,in the sprayof the waves
Broken shells in the moonlight
Obstinacyis theirpastime.
/
TAHITI INTERTWINED
23
15. Corbin ([1988]1994) traces the origins of the way
coastal landscapeswere readas sublime (and no longer repulsive) to around1750, which coincides with the time when Tahiti was first exploredby Europeans."At the time when Cook
and Bougainville were making their travels, the ocean would
call forth the image of a 'vast expanse' that was indifferentto
human time ... a place of sublime vacuity whose imagined
depth was modeled on the very perpendicularsides of the
mountainsthatoften borderedit" (Corbin[1988]1994:127).
16. See Calderet al. (1999) for discussionsof how colonial
encountersin the Pacific reveal a more contradictoryhistory
than thatusually describedby homogenizingdominantmyths.
17. On his first expedition, Cook tried to take two Tahitians back to Englandbut both died on board.During his second voyage he took two more, one of whom was Omai (the
other went only as far as New Zealand and then returnedto
Tahiti). Omai stayed in England for two years until 1776, at
which time Cook took him back to Tahiti.The transportingof
Tahitiansto Europewas somethingBougainville had tried as
well. Bougainvilletook Ahutoruto Paris,but Ahutoruwas unhappy and, after several months, was shipped back to Tahiti,
dying en route.
18. This numbercontinuedto grow. In 1966, some 37,300
tourists visited Tahiti and in 1971 therewere close to 78,000
(Aldrich 1993:88). Each succeeding year, for the next few
years, witnessed dramaticincreasesin the numberof tourists,
most of whom were Americans.In 1966, L'Office de D6veloppementdu Tourisme(the Office of TourismDevelopment)
was created.
19. Tourism generates 23 billion CFP a year (U.S. $230
million). The annualtourismbudget in 1996 was 800 million
CFP (U.S. $8 million). Of that,500 million CFP was spent on
promotion, advertising, and marketing.The remaining 300
million CFP was for personnel.The tourismindustryemploys
8,000 people, 32 of whom work directly for the Office of
Tourism. (Suzanne Lau-Chonfont,personal communication,
1995; Gilles Tefaatau,personalcommunication,1995).
20. Most Tahitians,as well as people opposed to the use of
the atoll for Frenchnucleartesting, still referto it as Moruroa.
21. France was not the only nation to test in the Pacific.
Americans carriedout a massive nucleartesting programon
Bikini and Enewetakatolls in the northernMarshallIslandsof
Micronesia from 1946 to 1958 (see Gusterson 1996; Kiste
1972).
22. Peto Firuu, like most Tahitians who worked on
Moruroa,was attractedby the opportunityfor employment.
He was given excellent pay, free housing, and food. His particularjob consisted of drillingthe holes-both on land and in
the bedrock under the lagoon-into which the bombs were
put. A cement sea wall had to be rebuiltaftereach nucleartest,
he said, because the atoll sankaftereach explosion.
23. CFP standsfor "courfrancpacifique,"a monetaryunit
created in 1945, the value of which is fixed to the French
franc. 1 FF= 18.1818 CFP.
24. See Lockwood (1993) for a discussion of this form of
financialbenevolence on the island of Tubuaiin FrenchPolynesia.
25. Food imports rose from 37% in 1960 to 80% in 1989
(Henningham1992:263).
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VOL. 102, No. 1
*
MARCH 2000
26. According to French law, previous writtenpermission
is needed for the commercialproductionof a pictureof a person.
27. Picture postcards, as a form of cheap communication
for the masses, first appearedin the 1880s and '90s. The most
popular story of their origin traces their appearanceto the
1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris (Geary and Webb 1998;
Staff 1966), the same colonial event that fired Gauguin's
imagination.
28. He also knows which postcardsare purchasedby tourists of differentnationalitiesbecause certainhotels cater predominantlyto clientele from specific countries.For instance,
postcards that sell at the Nara Hotel on Bora Bora are purchased mainly by Japanese, whereas at the Hotel Bora Bora
they are most likely purchasedby Americans."Japaneselike
to buy postcardswith lots of blue everywhere-blue lagoons,
blue sky, underwaterscenes, fish. Americans prefer sunset
postcardswith lots of red in them. Europeansbuy images that
have a more complex composition, such as women dancingor
village scenes. Just about everyone likes the naked girls, although the Japaneseless so" (Teva Sylvain, personalcommunication, 1995).
29. Teva employs models, thus circumventingthe French
law that restrictsthe Office of Tourismfrom using images of
people.
30. L'Eglise Evang6lique de Polyn6sie Franqaise,which
has been independentsince 1963, is the most popularchurch
in FrenchPolynesia, with about two-thirdsof Tahitiansbeing
members. Its name, in English, is glossed as the Protestant
Church,as distinguishedfrom the CatholicChurch.
31. Riots had also occurredin late 1983 (triggeredby a hotel workersstrike)and in October 1987 (resultingfrom a dock
workersstrikein reactionto plans to reducethe numberof Tahitian dockers). The 1987 riots, in particular,left Papeete
looking like a war zone and resulted in the declarationof a
state of emergency."Severaldozen shops andbusinesseswere
damagedor looted, and eight buildingswere destroyedby fire,
at an estimated cost of several million Australian dollars"
(Henningham1992:154).
32. See Saura(1998) for his interpretationof these popular
songs as a uniquelyTahitiandiscourse thatcombines political
activism with a spiritualquest.
33. The churchtook an active role in the protestto communicate that, in contrastto Tavini Huira'atira'spolitical position, the churchkept the anti-nuclearmovementseparatefrom
the pro-independencemovement.
34. By this time many of the protesterswere in jail. Tahitians oftenjoked thatif touristswantedto see the "realTahiti"
they should visit thejail.
35. The Japanesewere particularlyoutspokenin their opposition to the nuclear testing as they markedthe 50th anniversaryof the bombingof HiroshimaandNagasakiin September 1995.
36 Ironically,it is so big that it cannot dock close to many
of the islands.
37. See Kent (1993) and Trask (1993) for a similar interpretationof tourismin Hawai'i-as an extension of colonialism.
38. Those who are involved in the tourism industry, of
course, perpetuatetouristic images on a daily basis. Others,
who supportthemselves throughthe craft industry,createobjects such as wooden carvings, decorated pearl shells, and
pareu (colorful cloths that are worn aroundthe body in various styles), thatlikewise utilize images touristscrave.
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