Festival Day 2: Rapa Nui Lollapalooza

The huge Aranui 5 came straight into the harbor, dropped their port side anchor, then had two barges push them sideways into the dock. It was a little intimidating to those boats in the front row, I'm sure.

We woke early this morning to see the talk of the town: the brand new Aranui 5 that was scheduled to arrive at 7:00 am in the morning. The Aranui fleet consists of five ships that cruise French Polynesia serving as both freighters and luxury cruise ships. The Aranui 5 was the largest of the series and there was some scuttlebutt about whether it would be able to fit into the narrow Taahuku Bay (hence all the anchoring restrictions on the sailboats in the harbor). It is a much longer ship than its predecessors and the depth in the center of the bay is only about 20 to 25 ft. How they were going to squeeze it into the tiny concrete wharf was a mystery to us.

We were made aware of its arrival by thunderous cacophony of drums. Out on the breakwater were several hundred people from the island of Nuku Hiva. The inside story was the festival organizers (from Hiva Oa) had urged “local” people to get up early to welcome the Aranui 5 into port. The dancers from rival Nuku Hiva said we’d like to attend, but the Hiva Oa organizers said “No worries, we’ve got it covered.” Now if you are from the Marquesas you’ll know that the islanders are very competitive with each other, so sure enough an hour earlier than planned a caravan of buses containing the Nuka Hiva islanders arrived and staked out the prime breakwater location, where a local chief was heard to say “The Nuku Hiva dancers will be the first the Aranui passengers will see and hear on their way into the harbor.” A great strategy since the drums alone booming throughout the harbor essentially drowned out the smaller contingency from Hiva Oa further down the quay.

The majority of the Festival took place at Tohua Pepu, constructed very similarly to the public gathering places in ancient Polynesia. 

I never found out who these ladies were, but red is the royal color in Polynesia.

For Day Two of the Festival des Arts we decided we needed a more aggressive seating strategy, so we got an early start and caught a mini bus into town. The remainder of the Festival would be held at Tohua Pepeu, a large grassy field surrounded on three sides by large thatched-roof open buildings recently constructed for the Festival. Initially we sat at the far end of the field feeling that our spot on the wall under a large shade tree would be perfect, but we soon found that we were staring at the behinds of the last row of dancers (and they don’t put the best dancers in the last row). As the photographer, I repositioned myself just in front of the first row of dignitaries and got some great shots of the various dance groups.

One of the "dance captains" with his spear.

The dancing in the Marquesas is very male oriented, with the women serving the function of a chorus and storyteller using their hand motions.

In ancient times (up to 1910) the Marquesans were cannibals and fought with neighboring tribes in adjacent valleys.

All the dances follow a common theme, such as the pig dance, the bird dance, etc. with each group adding it's own variations.

The hakka, or dance, was typically a war dance as a prelude to attacking another tribe. 

The team from Ua Pou, touted as one of the crowd favorites, danced first and didn’t disappoint anyone. The men, in fierce war paint and festooned in short grass skirts, dark grass leggings, tattoos, and boar’s teeth necklaces, did a long series of war dances, starting with the “pig dance” that featured a low toned, but loud, exhalation of their breath in a rhythmic manner, imitating the noises made by wild pigs during a hunt. A (for lack of a better term) dance captain — an older warrior with a huge war club — mingles though the group making sure everyone is towing the line. The dances went on for up to an hour and the female dancers would join in with beautiful singing and hand gestures as they sat in rows on the grassy field. 

The sounds of these huge drums can be heard for miles. The pulsating beat literally permeates your body and gets everyone moving.

For me the best part were the multitude of towering drums, played flat handed with outstretched arms that produced a very loud and pulsating beat that permeated your body. It was interesting that even the young boys participated as drummers, learning the rhythms from a very young age.

This older man from Fatu Hiva was the master of the bird dance.

I was sitting with a French photographer from Fatu Hiva who told me to pay special attention to an older dancer with a bright yellow loin cloth. He said he was the most famous dancer in all of the Marquesas and would be performing the “bird dance,” a very delicate dance with ballet-type movements. It was magical to watch this man, who must of been at least 60 years old, balance on one leg while tracing out delicate hand movements in the air. I seriously doubt the best yoga master half his age could have duplicated these intricate movements.

Huge wooden serving trays held chicken, wild pig, and plantains.

An interesting variation on the "natural" serving dish is this split piece of bamboo.

Following the Ua Pou (u a poe) performance was the special Grand KaiKai lunch on a nearby grassy field. A series of bright red/yellow/white (the Marquesan colors) tents were set up and hundreds of participants mingled about waiting for the food to be served. Each team had a tent and were serving specialties from their respective islands, steamed clams, crab, octopus, fish, poi, taro, and wild pig. Marquesans take eating very seriously and it was somewhat of a battle just to get a place in the serving line. The best I could score was some incredibly delicious wild pig (roasted for a long time in a deep, leaf covered pit), along with what I believe was taro (it was a yellow looking squash-type food). The pig was so rich you really couldn’t eat much of it.

Without being aware, I had wandered into a special tent for the Aranui 5. The food selection was amazing and the tent was less crowded until a very snooty looking French lady in front of me waved her Aranui 5 ID card and said this tent was just for the passengers. Well, that was like waving a red flag at me, so I made it my goal in life to sneak into the Aranui tent as often as possible, filling up on a delicious orange drink they had in huge Gatorade type coolers.

We sat picnic style on the grass with Roger and Sasha and enjoyed the offerings from the various tents and met other cruisers who wandered by. We then headed back to the dance venue, this time staking out prime seats just in front of the Mayor and the High Commissioner of the Marquesas (no need for security here, these guys were huge). I realized that the family I was sitting with was the Mayor’s kids and spent a lot of time teasing his 4-year-old granddaughter who was sitting just in front of me. She was sure a cutie!

The Rapa Nui dances captivated the audience with their customs and incredible dance movements.

This is the tamest version of this dance I could publish. Let's just say they get "up close and personal" during this dance.

The Rapa Nui had a way of capturing the attention of the female viewers.

Finally, what we had been all waiting for, the dance team from Easter Island, the Rapa Nui, entered the field. These guys and girls where incredible:  the men dressed (barely) in loin clothes and large feathered headdresses and the women in large white feather headdresses. To say the dances were suggestive is an understatement as their was no doubt in anyone’s mind as to what act they were depicting, but the beauty of French Polynesians is a complete lack of any self consciousness and a very open view of sexuality. Just watching these guys I could feel the body heat of the women around me rising. Female eye candy, indeed.

If this Rapa Nui thought he was going to intimidate this Ua Pou dancer he was in for a big surprise. She put on a sensual show that still has them talking back on the dock.

The Rapa Nui women were simply breathtaking. No one knows how to move their hips like a Polynesian woman.

As part of the dance performances, the dance troupe would go out in the audience and pick out someone from another team to join in the dancing. My favorite was a beautiful young woman in a blue top and orange pareu who was dancing with an almost naked Rapa Nui. I thought she might be intimidated, but I soon realized she was a ringer and could dance as sensual a dance as the guy. Again, everyone’s eyes were glued on this couple and the body heat of the audience definitely rose during their performance.

This "Catholic priest" who symbolically tried to turn the Marquesan's away from idolatry was summarily attacked and killed by the natives.

I liked the juxtaposition of the cross overlooking the "pagan" dances. French Polynesia is probably 90% Catholic with a smattering of Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons.

Another interesting performance was the arrival of a large wooden tiki carried by a group of about twenty warriors. Out of the crowd comes a man dressed like a Catholic priest waving a cross at the tiki, at which point the warriors attack and kill him. The various missionaries where famous for having tiki’s destroyed or mutilated (typically having the rather prominent penis cut off with hammers). Not speaking French or Marquesan I can’t give you any insight to the story behind this one, but it brought a response from the audience.

It had been a full day for Meryl and I and we decided to head back to the boat, missing the night dance performances of several teams. We figured there was much more dancing coming up the next day and we wanted to be alive to watch it.