We rise with the sun and pau hana (quitting time) is 3 PM, leaving time for a swim in the bay or visiting friends in the village. Weekends are for relaxing and sightseeing.
Cook anchored in the sheltered bay fronting Tahuata’s Vaitahu and Hanamiai Valleys.
Hiva Oa, the nearest island with an airport, is seen in the distance.
Tahuata is a volcanic island with rugged, mountainous terrain cloaked in tropical vegetation. There is no airport, so we will fly to the neighboring island of Hiva Oa then take a boat to Tahuata. We will be the only non-Marquesans on the island and we will live with Marquesan families in the village of Vaitahu. The houses today are simple but clean, with corrugated aluminum roofs, indoor plumbing, gas stoves, electricity, telephones, and satellite TV. But these are recent developments. Time passed over the Marquesas for many years. Cannibalism survived until the 1880s and it was a hundred years later that telephones and electricity were introduced. Marquesans are still self-sufficient through fishing, hunting, and planting. They are close to nature and, unlike Polynesians on more developed islands such as Tahiti and Easter Island, Marquesans know how to live off the land. They also retain many other aspects of their traditional life, including the cultural practice of gift exchange and a rich history of oral traditions.
Our headquarters are in the picturesque village of Vaitahu, on Tahuata (Gauguin lived and painted nearby on Hiva Oa). There are no hotels (just two local stores stocked with cold drinks, etc.). There is also essentially no service economy - no restaurants, taxis, or professional tour guides. Our hosts are the 350 wonderful inhabitants of this unforgettable world. We’ll live just a short walk to the beach, in a rented house with modern kitchen and toilet facilities (albeit cold showers - scarcely a problem in this tropical climate).
One of our main goals is to give participants the experience of working in a remote area, on a project that brings indigenous peoples into the investigation of their own past. You will be immersed in Marquesan society.
We live and work with people whose only languages are Marquesan and French and who rarely leave their small (50 km2) island.
Apart from swimming and hiking, other opportunities include:
Learning to make coconut oil (pani) scented with sandalwood;
Catching fish with a bamboo pole at night from the quai;
Collecting edible shellfish and sea urchins from the shoreline;
Snorkeling and diving for shells;
Learning to make leis using local flowers and leaves;
Learning to climb a coconut tree;
Learning to husk a coconut and make coconut milk;
Learning Marquesan dances;
Learning to speak and understand Marquesan;
Collecting ripe fruit from the back of the valley. These fruits will be in season: vi apple, mountain apple, oranges, Tahitian grapefruit, papaya, and bananas;
Learning to make breadfruit popoi using a stone poi pounder;
And making an earth oven for cooking Marquesan food.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE
2010 Marquesas Project
LIVING CONDITIONS