Tehaumate Tetahiotupa (“Tetahi”) and AFAR President Barry Rolett founded the Tahuata Museum in 1987. Ours is the first community-based archaeology museum in the Marquesas.
The Tahuata Museum
The Museum is located in the center of Vaitahu village, next to the town hall and school.
The exhibits feature artifacts from AFAR excavations on Tahuata, as well as artifacts donated by members of the community.
Major Funding
Building: Government of French Polynesia
Display Cases and Design: Institute for Polynesian Studies (Brigham Young Universty, Hawaii).
Fishhooks made of pearl shell are among the most delicate and beautiful artifacts discovered during excavations at the Hanamiai Dune.
Teiki Barsinas and two other artists carved this massive tiki by hand. It is made of Polynesian tou wood from a trunk nearly five feet in diameter.
In the early 1800s Marquesans acquired metal through trading with Americans and Europeans. This display shows the transition from pearl shell to iron and bronze for tools such as fishhooks and coconut graters.
Stone adzes, the basic implements for wood working in the pre-European contact period.