French Polynesia
| |||
| File:Frenchpolynesia location map.JPG | |||
| National motto | Tahiti Nui Mare'are'a | ||
| Official languages | French, Tahitian | ||
| Capital | Papeete | ||
| Government type | Dependent territory | ||
| President | Oscar Temaru | ||
| Area
Ranked 164th |
4167km² 0 | ||
| Population
Ranked 180th |
245,405 | ||
| Per capita GDP | $US17500 (ranked 59th) | ||
| Currency | CFP franc | ||
| Time zone | Universal Time-10 (no daylight saving time) | ||
| National anthem | La Marseillaise | ||
| Calling Code | 689 | ||
| Internet TLD | .pf | ||
French Polynesia, or as it is known in Tahitian language Porinetia Farani is a French "overseas country" in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is the seat of the capital of the territory (Papeete). Tahiti featured in the late eighteenth century saga of the mutiny on the Bounty. In the late twentieth century, French nuclear testing in the territory sparked international protests.
Geography
French Polynesia is an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean, about half way between South America and Australia. It is made up of 118 islands and atolls, the largest and most populated of which is Tahiti, and has a total land area of 4167 square kilometers.
The island groups are: Austral Islands, Bass Islands, Gambier Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the Society Islands (including Tahiti), and the Tuamotu Archipelago. Aside from Tahiti, important atolls and islands, and island groups in French Polynesia include Bora Bora, Hiva Oa, Huahine, Maiao, Maupiti, Mehetia, Moorea, Nuku Hiva, Raiatea, Tahaa, Tetiaroa, Tubuai, and Tupai. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island is administered from French Polynesia.
Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean, the others being Banaba Island in Kiribati and Nauru.
French Polynesia has a tropical but moderate climate, with an average temperature of 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit). There is a warm rainy season from November to April and a cool dry season from May to October. The Marquesas Islands are the driest, and the Tubuai Islands are the wettest.
The terrain is a mixture of low islands with reefs, and rugged high islands, the highest point being Mont Orohena, 2241 meters.
Natural resources include timber, fish, cobalt, and hydropower. Forests and woodland make 31 percent of land, one percent is arable land, six percent permanent crops, five percent permanent pastures, and 57 percent is classified as “other.”
Natural hazards include occasional cyclonic storms in January. French Polynesia is located in an area of high seismic activity.
History
Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa settled the Marquesas Islands around 300 C.E., archaeological evidence suggests. British explorer Samuel Wallis came upon what is now Tahiti in 1767. French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville followed soon after, and Captain James Cook visited in 1769. Cook named Tahiti and called its surrounding islands the Society Islands after his sponsor, Britain’s Royal Society.
Tahiti featured in the saga of the mutiny on the Bounty. Lieutenant William Bligh and the HMS Bounty reached Tahiti in October 1788 to pick up breadfruit plants for the West Indies, in hopes that they would grow well and become a cheap source of food for slaves. Bligh and his crew spent five months in Tahiti, then called “Otaheite.” The crew lived ashore to care for the 1015 potted plants. They became entranced by the seductive Tahitian culture, and women. Many had themselves tattooed. Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian married a Tahitian woman.
It has been said that the pleasurable stay in Tahiti was a factor in the subsequent mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, that has been made famous by several books, and films. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against Bligh, who was then cast adrift in a small open boat with 18 loyal men.
Members of the London Missionary Society, who arrived in 1796, were the first European settlers. France annexed the islands beginning in the 1840s.
The port town of Papeete grew as the main economic, administrative, and religious centre in the early twentieth century. The island of Bora-Bora became a refuelling station for United States forces in the Second World War.
The colony became an overseas territory of France in 1946. In a plebiscite held in 1958, the islands voted for the status of an overseas territory within the French community. In 1966, France began a nuclear testing programme on uninhabited islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago. A push for greater autonomy throughout the 1970s and 1980s gave the territorial government more power.
In the early 1990s, Tahiti’s high prices and international anti-nuclear sentiment caused the tourism industry to decline. In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing at Fangataufa atoll after a three-year moratorium. The last test was on January 27th, 1996. The French government signed, in March 1996, the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty, which banned nuclear testing in the region. Widespread unemployment resulted, and France promised to contribute economic aid to help the territory diversify its economy.
Between 2003 and early 2004, the islands were classed as an overseas collectivity of France. However, in 2004 the islands were granted the new designation of “overseas country,” which gives an increased amount of autonomy.
Politics
The politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy. As a French overseas collectivity, the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the 49-member Assembly of French Polynesia. Representatives are elected by universal adult suffrage, and the collectivity is represented in both houses of the French National Assembly.
French Polynesia has five administrative subdivisions: The Society Islands (Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands), the Marquesas Islands, the Austral Islands (including the Bass Islands}, the Tuamotus, and the Gambier Islands.
A conservative government led by Gaston Flosse of the pro-autonomy Tahoeraa Huiraatira (People’s Rally for the Republic Party) came to power in 1982 and dominated the islands’ politics in the late twentieth century. In 2004, when granted the status of “overseas country,” Flosse became French Polynesia’s first president. Legislative elections were held in May of that year, and Flosse’s party was ousted from power by a progressive coalition led by pro-independence candidate Oscar Temaru. However, less than five months later, amid much controversy, fresh parliamentary elections were held and Flosse restored himself as president. Temaru contested the vote and after a series of negotiations was returned to power in March 2005.
Gaston Flosse, born 1931, has been both tourism minister and housing minister. He is the mayor of Pirea municipality north of Papeete and is the representative for the territory in the French National Assembly in Paris. He and French President Jacques Chirac have a close personal association, Chirac being a godfather to Flosse's youngest son. In 2006 Flosse was convicted of corruption and given a three-month suspended sentence. The court found that he had abused his political office in connection with a hotel purchase.
Oscar Temaru, born 1944, received a thorough religious education, was in the French Navy for three years in and participated in the Algerian War of Independence. On his return to French Polynesia he became a customs officer in Tahiti. An early political influence was Jean-Marie Tjibaou, philosopher and former leader of the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), who was assassinated in New Caledonia in 1989. Temaru campaigned against nuclear testing by France at Moruroa and Fangataufa Atolls. In 1977, he formed his political party, the Front for the Liberation of Polynesia (FLP). The party changed its name in 1983 to Tavini Huiraatira.
As an overseas territory of France, the French military provides defense and law-enforcement.
Economy
Since 1962, when France stationed military personnel in the region, French Polynesia changed from a subsistence economy to one in which a high proportion of the work force was either employed by the military or supported the tourism industry. By year 2006, French Polynesia had a moderately developed economy, which is dependent on imported goods, tourism, and financial assistance from mainland France. Tourist facilities are well developed and are available on the major islands. Tourism accounts for about one-fourth of Gross domestic product(GDP) and is a primary source of hard currency earnings. Also, as the noni fruit from these islands is discovered for its medicinal uses, people have been able to find jobs related to this agricultural industry.
The legal tender currency of French Polynesia is the CFP franc. Many merchants have been reported to accept other currencies readily.
French Polynesia’s per capita GDP was $US17,500 in 2003. The territory received $US367-million in economic aid in 1997. Agriculture products included coconuts, vanilla, vegetables, fruits, poultry, beef, and dairy products. In the mid-1990s French Polynesia was producing more than 95 per cent of the world’s supply of cultured pearls.
Exports totalled $US211-million in 2004. Export commodities included cultured pearls (50 percent), coconut products, mother-of-pearl, vanilla, and shark meat. Export partners were France (45.8 percent), Japan (20.6 percent), Niger (13.2 percent), and the United States (12.4 percent).
Imports totalled $US1706-million in 2005. Import commodities included fuels, foodstuffs, equipment. Import partners were France (51.9 percent), Singapore (14.7 percent), New Zealand (0.5 percent), and the United States (6.5 percent).
While most major roads are paved and well-maintained, many secondary roads are not. Traffic is brisk and all types of vehicles and pedestrians jockey for space on narrow streets.
Demographics
Total population at the 2002 census was 245,405 inhabitants, 83 percent of whom are Polynesian, local French six percent, metropolitan French four percent, other Europeans two percent, East Asian (mainly Chinese) five percent. In 2002, 69 percent of the population of French Polynesia lived in the island of Tahiti. The urban area of Papeete, the capital city, had 127,635 inhabitants.
French Polynesia is a Christian territory. Fifty four percent are Protestant, 30 percent Roman Catholic, and 16 percent are listed as “other.”
French is one official language, as is Tahitian. Other languages with only local (if any official) status are Marquesan, Puka-Pukan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, Tubuaian, and Rapan.
Regarding literacy, 98 percent aged 14 and over can read and write. France provides education. The University of French Polynesia, a small university of around 2000 students, is located in Faa'a, Tahiti.
Culture
The Christian missionaries tried to wipe out traditional Polynesian culture by levelling temples, destroying carvings, and banning tattoos and heady, erotic dancing. But some traditional ways survived, and in the late twentieth century there was a strong push to rediscover traditional arts.
Traditional musical instruments include “pahu” and “toere” drums and the curious nose flute called a “vivo.” Guitars and ukuleles made their way into Polynesia and the locals developed a unique song style that owes much to country and western music in form but has a distinctive South Pacific island groove. Customary dancing (“tamure”) has slowly returned, but the art of making “tapa” (bark paper and cloth), has all but disappeared.
Tattooing is an integral part of the Tahitan culture. The western word “tattoo” is taken from the Tahiti word "tatau" meaning open wound. A tattoo represent a girl's sexual maturity, tribe rank and other social symbols. Tahitian woman would traditionally tattoo their loins and buttocks deep blue. A traditional tattoo is made from a bone containing between three and 20 needles. The needles are then dipped in a pigment made from soot of burnt candlenut mixed with water and oil. The needle is tapped against the skin with a wooden stick causing the skin to be punctured. This practice was banned in 1986 but traditional artists developed a machine constructed from an electric shaver to avoid risk of disease and this practice is in place today. Designs used in the tattoos were often the same as wood- carving, decorated gourds and painted barkcloth. Each tribe would have its own design or body placement of familiar motif, like the Maori tribes' spiral pattern of a tree fern, unique in the Pacific. Tattoos are ancestral and tribespeople do not like to parade their tattoos to outsiders. A higher-ranking individual would have more tattoos that an ordinary tribesman.
Dress standards in French Polynesia are relaxed, even in the classiest restaurants, and beach wear is often just from the waist down. Church is serious and Sunday is the day of worship, fully clothed.
The Polynesian concept of family is broader than in the west — cousins, uncles, and aunts make up the family, known as “fetii.” The family might also have adopted children, “faaamu,” and children are commonly entrusted to relatives or childless women.
French Polynesia has a unique culinary tradition, with old South Pacific cooking methods combining with French, Italian and Chinese cuisine. This appears in restaurants and in the cheap roadside mobile snack bars, “les roulottes.” Food is cooked in traditional pit ovens common throughout the Pacific. A hole is dug in the ground, stones are placed within it and then a fire is lit to heat the stones. The food, wrapped in banana leaves, is placed on top, and then the hole is filled in again with earth. The baking process takes several hours. In French Polynesia this kind of oven is called an “ahimaa,” and the feast is called a “tamaaraa.”
On Tahiti, Papeete is a cosmopolitan city with a strong western influence. Residents enjoy French cuisine. Food, most clothing and other goods are imported, largely from France. The cost of living in Papeete and other urban areas on Tahiti is high, by Pacific Island standards. The lifestyle is much slower on more remote islands, with more subsistence activities.
French national holidays are celebrated. Canoe racing and other water sports are popular. Tahitian music and dances have enthusiastic audiences.
French Polynesia has one of the lowest crime rates within France and its territories. However, petty crime, such as pocket picking and purse snatching, occurs.
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
