These guys are carving a whale!
10 June 2016 | Avera, Raiatea, French Polynesia
Bill
After dropping Isobel at school, I went next door to pay for the "Canteen" (School lunch)... on approaching the Marie (town hall), here were these guys carving this huge stone into a whale.
When the missionaries arrived in Polynesia they, in their effort to convert the locals to Christianity, forbid much of their art! Many creatures, trees, mountains, etc were considered sacred. We have been places where people carve tikis, these wonderful wooden men/creatures... when we ask them "what it means," they say, "Nothing, I do it because the tourists like them." The same with their history. History was passed down verbally. The Missionaries encouraged them to write down the histories rather than pass them from father to son... somehow those written histories have been lost...
When the French took over from the British they made it manditory that all schools teach in french. There are many Polynesians who cannot speak proper Tahitian...
Now there seems to be a resurgence of Polynesian pride. Tahitian is now taught in schools along with french, more people are dancing (each dance tells a historical story), and more people are doing art for the love of it. I haven't found out how this whale came to be... and I would like to think it is spontaneous art... It is wonderful to see...