Drenched in sweat and struggling to catch his breath, Christopher Ravatua looked like any other athlete after a hard-fought victory. But the vestiges of the contest—the pulp and shells of several hundred peeled coconuts—reflected the uniqueness of the scene.
Ravatua, 36, from the island of Rimatara in French Polynesia, had just won first place in a coconut-opening contest in Papeete in July. The event was part of Heiva i Tahiti, an annual festival on the island that features traditional Polynesian dance and game competitions and now attracts hundreds of contestants from the region.
Next year, Tahiti will host an event with a much higher global profile: the surfing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
There is pride and excitement, the Tahitians say, about the money to be made from the Olympic Games; about attracting the world’s attention, even briefly, during your biggest sporting event. But there is also fear, due to concerns about overexposure and overdevelopment, as well as some deep-seated, complicated feelings about French colonization of the South Pacific islands.
More than the Olympic Games, the Heiva can be seen as indicative of the heart and spirit of Tahiti. C.With roots dating back to the 19th century, Heiva is a week-long celebration of Polynesian culture that has grown and developed over the years as a counterpoint to the relentless external pressure of Western influences.
“This feels like a Polynesian Olympics — for us and for our games,” said Tainui Lenoir, from the island of Rurutu.
Lenoir, 39, took second place in July in the coconut tree climbing contest, one of many events — along with Polynesian canoeing, heavy stone lifting, javelin throwing, hauling races fruits and the fight—that they take from the Polynesian cultural heritage.
However, the Heiva’s star event is the performance of the traditional dance, or Ori Tahiti. Each summer, groups of up to 200 members flock from across the region to compete before several thousand enthusiastic spectators and a panel of judges in a packed amphitheater. The dances, backed by heart-pounding drums, are charged with meaning, say the artists, because there were moments in history when the dances were prohibited or severely controlled by the missionaries and European colonizers.
Many of the dances deal with themes of colonialism and “reappropriation of Polynesian culture,” explains Urarii Berselli, a schoolteacher and dancer whose team won the amateur division this summer.
Questions about Tahiti’s ability to assert its own identity and interests always linger in the collective psyche. The approval in 2020 of the coastal town of Teahupo’o as the venue for the surfing competition for the Paris Games reawakened them. The town is home to one of the most powerful and famous surf breaks in the world.
“They are worried about the symbolism of this,” said Lorenz Gonschor, who studies Oceania politics at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. “It is not the Olympic Games in French Polynesia. It’s the Paris Olympics and they treat Teahupo’o like a Parisian suburb.”
Some people in Tahiti have more practical concerns about whether the games spotlight would continue a polarizing trend of development and foreign investment on the island.
When organizers came looking for unpaid volunteers to work on next summer’s events (an arrangement frequently criticized at other Olympics), there was some resentment.
Vahine Fierro, 23, who was born on Huahine, a nearby island, and today living mainly in Teahupo’o, she qualified for the Games as a member of the French team, but she felt more relief than happiness.
“Obviously the Olympics are generating money for people to work and exposure for tourists to see such a magical place,” he said. “At the same time, it’s normal for the people who live here to feel a bit of resistance to that because they don’t want the place to change.”
Alexis Taupua, 72, has lived in Teahupo’o her entire life. “It was a beautiful time, because there were almost no people,” he said of his youth.
Taupua said he was nostalgic for the past and regretted the changes in his village, but he also seemed determined to make the most of the present. “There is no going back,” he said. “We are evolving.”
By: ANDREW KEH
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6870167, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-08-29 21:10:09
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