Musée de Tahiti et des Îles

The Musée de Tahiti et des Îles ("Museum of Tahiti and the Islands"), Tahitian Te Fare Manaha ("the Museum"), is the national museum of French Polynesia, located in Puna'auia, Tahiti.

Musée de Tahiti et des Îles

Location within Tahiti
Established	1974 (1974)
Location	Puna'auia, Tahiti
Type	Ethnographic museum
Director	Miriama Bono
Website	www.museetahiti.pf

History

The museum was founded in 1974 to conserve and restore Polynesian artefacts and cultural practices.^[1] The museum was constructed on Nu'uroa Point, which was already a historic location having been the site of the Taputapuatea marae and where the first evangelical mission settled.^[2] It has signed cooperation agreements with the Musée du quai Branly.^[3]

The museum established a library in 1980.^[4]

In 2016 photovoltaic panels were installed on the roof of museum in order to generate its own electricity supply.^[5] In 2017 plans for renovation and redesign of the museum, drawn up by the architect Pierre-Jean Picart (fr), were approved.^[5] The museum closed to the public in 2019 and is due to re-open in August 2022 with re-developed galleries.^[6]

Engagement

In 2021 the museum opened the temporary Tahiti ti'a Mai exhibition, which focussed on Tahitian celebrations, due to the COVID-19 pandemic ran digital workshops which engaged with over 3000 visitors.^[7][8] The museum has curated displays of objects at Tahiti's airport.^[9]

Leading up to its opening in 2018 museum staff were part of a team that co-curated the British Museum exhibition Reimagining Captain Cook: Pacific Perspectives.^[10]

Collection

The collection includes: objects that reflect the natural world, including a herbarium;^[11][12] life prior to European colonisation, and life post-colonization.^[13] Significant objects in the collection include: a portrait of Pōmare IV painted by Charles Giraud;^[14] a Mangarevan coconut-log mask;^[15] historic examples of tapa;^[16] adzes and coconut pounders;^[9] breadfruit tools;^[17] amongst others. The collection also includes objects originally collected by missionary George Bennet that have since been returned to Tahiti.^[18]

Gallery

• 
  Human image, tuff, Society Islands, Musée de Tahiti et des Îles
• 
  Portrait of Queen Pomare IV of Tahiti, Charles Giraud, 1851, Musée de Tahiti et des Îles
• 
  Displays at the museum, prior to renovation in 2017.
• 
  Museum display, prior to renovation in 2017.

Repatriation and loans

British Museum

In September 2019 the Director of the Musée du quai Branly, Emmanuel Kasarhérou, and the Minister for Culture in Polynesia, Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu, and the Director of Musée de Tahiti et des Îles, Miriama Bono, signed an agreement to ensure the return to Tahiti of the Maro'ura - a fragment of a chiefly belt made of tapa, that was born by chiefs and is considered a sacred object.^[19] The Maro'ura was worn by Tahitian king Pōmare, whose appearance with it was described by James Cook in 1767. Legally the Maro'ura will be loaned to the museum on a three-year renewable agreement, as, according to Bono, since "as we are a French, we cannot ask France to repatriate something back to France."^[20] Other objects that will also be loaned include a To'o mata and a Taavaha from the Marquesas Islands and a penu.^[6]

The museum has also requested the loan of objects from the British Museum and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.^[5] Objects loaned from Cambridge will include objects collected by missionary George Bennet, including Tahitian pearl earrings, a fly swatter, a drum and a tattoo set.^[6] Objects due to be loaned from the British Museum include a chief's belt of Anaa, a taumi of the Society, a statue of Rongo des Gambier and the statue of A'a from Rurutu.^[6]

Gallery of objects in overseas collections

• 
  Objects in Otago Museum
• 
  Chief mourner's costume, Tahiti, Society Islands, Bishop Museum
• 
  Fishhook, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
• 
  A sacred god figure wrapping for the war god 'Oro, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Former directors

• Jean-Marc Pambrun^[21][22]
• Anne Lavondes^[4]
• Manouche Lehartel^[23]
• Théano Jaillet (2011 - 2016)^[24]
• Miriama Bono (2017–2023)^[25]
• Hinanui Cauchois (2023-present)^[26]

References

1. Besnier, Niko; Alexeyeff, Kalissa (2014-12-31). Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-4019-8.
2. "Pose de la 1ère pierre de l'aménagement et de la rénovation du Musée de Tahiti et des îles". 2021-10-29. Archived from the original on 2021-10-29. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
3. "La coopération territoriale" (PDF). Musée du quai Branly: Rapport d'activité 2006. Musée du quai Branly. p. 72. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
4. Aymonin, David; Heutte, Isabelle (2015). "Resources for Research in French Polynesia and New Caledonia". The Contemporary Pacific. 27 (2): 465–484. doi:10.1353/cp.2015.0052. hdl:10125/42542. ISSN 1527-9464. S2CID 162815658.
5. "Rénovation du Musée de Tahiti et des îles : les esquisses dévoilées". 2021-10-26. Archived from the original on 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
6. "Costume de deuilleur, statue A'a et autres objets emblématiques du patrimoi". 2021-09-23. Archived from the original on 2021-09-23. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
7. "Une première édition numérique pour le Musée de Tahiti et des îles | La Dépêche de Tahiti". 2021-10-26. Archived from the original on 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
8. "Exposition Tahiti ti'a mai au Musée de Tahiti et des îles". Heiva i Tahiti (in French). Retrieved 2021-10-26.
9. Richards, Michelle J.; Günther, Jasmin (2019-09-12). "The Past, Present and Future Values of the Polynesian Stone Adzes and Pounders Collected on the Pandora". Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. 29 (1): 4. doi:10.5334/bha-622. hdl:1885/294431. ISSN 2047-6930. S2CID 203509955.
10. McLaren, Annemarie; Clark, Alison (2020-07-02). "Captain Cook upon Changing Seas: Indigenous Voices and Reimagining at the British Museum". The Journal of Pacific History. 55 (3): 418–431. doi:10.1080/00223344.2019.1663390. ISSN 0022-3344. S2CID 211654520.
11. Dotte-Sarout, Emilie; Kahn, Jennifer G. (2017-11-01). "Ancient woodlands of Polynesia: A pilot anthracological study on Maupiti Island, French Polynesia". Quaternary International. Anthracology: Local to Global Significance of Charcoal Science - Part I. 457: 6–28. Bibcode:2017QuInt.457....6D. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.10.032. ISSN 1040-6182.
12. Girardi, Cynthia; Butaud, Jean François; Ollier, Corinne; Ingert, Nicolas; Weniger, Bernard; Raharivelomanana, Phila; Moretti, Christian (2015-02-23). "Herbal medicine in the Marquesas Islands". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 161: 200–213. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.09.045. ISSN 0378-8741. PMID 25527315.
13. "Musée de Tahiti et des Îles | French Polynesia Attractions". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
14. Fayaud, Viviane (2006-01-01). "A Tahitian Woman in Majesty French Images of Queen Pomare". History Australia. 3 (1): 12.1–12.6. doi:10.2104/ha060012. ISSN 1449-0854. S2CID 143839491.
15. LUOMALA, KATHARINE (1977). "Post-European Central Polynesian Head Masks and Puppet-Marionette Heads". Asian Perspectives. 20 (1): 130–171. ISSN 0066-8435. JSTOR 42927953.
16. Seelenfreund, Andrea; Sepúlveda, Marcela; Petchey, Fiona; Peña-Ahumada, Barbara; Payacán, Claudia; Gutiérrez, Sebastián; Cárcamo, José; Kardailsky, Olga; Moncada, Ximena; Rojas, Ana María; Moraga, Mauricio (2016-12-01). "Characterization of an archaeological decorated bark cloth from Agakauitai Island, Gambier archipelago, French Polynesia". Journal of Archaeological Science. 76: 56–69. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2016.10.008. ISSN 0305-4403.
17. ANTONI, J. & FALCHETTO, A. (2019): Knife in the wall: three examples of a rare tool-form on Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, Eastern Polynesia, Archeometriai Műhely XVI/2 127-134.
18. Jacobs, K. (2014-01-22). "Inscribing missionary impact in Central Polynesia: mapping the George Bennet collection (1821-1824)". Journal of the History of Collections. 26 (2): 263–276. doi:10.1093/jhc/fht038. ISSN 0954-6650.
19. "Polynesia: The "Maro'ura", the centerpiece of an exhibition on Polynesian royal objects at the Quai Branly". 2021-10-29. Archived from the original on 2021-10-29. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
20. Srinivasan, Prianka (20 December 2019). "Calls for museum to repatriate indigenous objects, as sacred Maro 'Ura to return to Tahiti". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022.
21. "Musée de Tahiti et des îles | Punaauia". 2021-10-29. Archived from the original on 2021-10-29. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
22. Gonschor, Lorenz (2012). "French Polynesia". The Contemporary Pacific. 24 (1): 171–184. doi:10.1353/cp.2012.0012. ISSN 1527-9464. S2CID 258057468.
23. Anthropologica. Canadian Anthropology Society. 2000.
24. "Théano Jaillet, la directrice du Musée de Tahiti et des îles, dresse le bilan avant son départ" (in French). Tahiti Infos. 30 December 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
25. "Miriama Bono aux commandes du Musée de Tahiti et des îles" (in French). Tahiti Infos. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
26. K, M. (2023-11-29). "Musée de Tahiti et des iles : Hinanui Cauchois nommée par intérim après le départ de Miriama Bono". TNTV Tahiti Nui Télévision (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-05.

External links

• Official site (in French)
• The Tahiti Ti'a Mai exhibition at the Museum of Tahiti and the Islands

17.6323°S 149.6139°W / -17.6323; -149.6139