And Go?

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Howto Make

Gambier Get Up

And Go?

The Gambier Islands, southeastern outpost of French Polynesia, were visited early in their South Pacific travels by PI M's roving correspondent Jimmy Cornell, his wife Gwenda and children Doina and Ivan, in their ketch Aventura.

Few places in the Pacific have been so generously treated by nature as the Gambier Islands, a group of volcanic origin

sharing one large lagoon.

The main island, Man gareva, is extremely fertile with food in abundance. Not only are there coconuts, bananas and papayas but also lemons, oranges, grapefruit, mango, breadfruit and even coffee.

However, they often remain unpicked and piles of rotting fruit lie under the trees of the once well kept plantations,

now overrun by secondary

growth.

Many Mangarevans have left their islands during the past decade and those remaining are simply not interested in farming. Their young mayor, Lucas Paeamara, says his people have lost their spirit.

This may have had something to do with the sudden pros perity generated during the at mospheric nuclear testing programme on nearby Mururoa. At that time there

was plenty of paid employ

ment, both on Mururoa and at home.

Although 500 km from the testing ground itself, the Gam biers served as a stand-by and observation base. An airstrip capable of taking the latest jets were constructed on Totegegie, one of the atolls in the Gam bier lagoon. There were many jobs serving the numerous military and scientific person nel stationed there. When the testing programme went underground, the Gambier base dwindled and so did the

jobs.

Most Mangarevans may then have returned to their tra ditional occupations if an out

break of ciguatera (fish poisoning) had not made their lagoon the most toxic in French

Polynesia, with virtually no

fish being edible. This poison ing was later shown to have been caused by the extensive

dredging, blasting and dump

ing in the lagoon (PIM May

1977). Used to a regular income, many Mangarevans decided to leave for Tahiti in search of work.

This, however, was not the first exodus from these islands,

another having taken place just

over a century ago when people fled from the hierocra tic dictatorship of Pere Laval.

This Catholic priest had arrived in the Gambiers with an early party of French mis sionaries in 1834. Ten years later, by which time the Gam bier Islands had become a French protectorate, the zealous missionaries had suc ceeded in converting nearly all of the population to Chris

tainity. Their astonishing suc

cess was mainy due to the full

co-operation of the Man

garevan King Maputeoa,

renamed Gregoire I, or Kerekorio in Mangarevan, who became a willing tool in the hands of Pere Laval.

The hierocracy established by the latter led to excesses

worthy of an Egyptian

pharaoh. A grandiose pro gramme of public building was foisted upon the unfortunate Mangarevans who either com plied or faced excommunica tion on their king’s orders.

Huge stone churches were built on each island, the capital Riki tea boasting the largest church in Polynesia. A massive road was built of large slabs of coral, which had to be ferried across the lagoon from the outlying reef. By the time the churches were completed, there were hardly any people left to worship in them, the popu lation having dwindled to about one thousand. Many died from exhaustion through

forced labour, others of various

diseases brought by the

Europeans as an increasing

number of vessels visited the group.

In his old age, Pere Laval published his memoirs, the first volume entitled From Canni balism to Christianity. In this he admitted some of his mistakes, such as allowing the people to cut down their breadfruit trees for pews in the churches and the destruction of the islands’

ecosystem by thoughtless de

forestation in order to open up tracts of land for European

type farming.

The picture is certainly not as bad now. But how much bet ter is it? Only some 500 people live on Mangareva today, while oh the other three formerly inhabited islands, Taravai, Aukena and Akamaru, there

are just crumbling ghost vil-

King Maputeoa’s tomb ... will ing tool in the hands of Pere Laval. Photo: Jimmy Cornell

Off Rikitea ... a perfect anchorage. Photo Jimmy Cornell

lages, disappearing beneath the

encroaching jungle. Of the 500, more than a third are children of school age, most families having a large number of chil

dren. Attempts at family plan

ning have met with little success due mainly to the

people’s Catholicism.

The headmaster until re

cently, Jacques Richeton, an

expatriate Frenchman, who refused to do his military ser vice and moved to Polynesia to do social work instead, has done his best to show the school children a better way to follow. Married to a Gambier girl, Jacques was the first to re alise the importance of preserving as much as possible

of Mangareva’s fast-disappear

ing traditions. In his school the

pupils were encouraged to

speak their native language,

although tuition in French is compulsory from the earliest age.

Worried by the many cases of malnutrition among his pu pils, caused not so much by poverty but by their parents’ neglect, the headmaster started a school canteen providing lunch, thus making sure that

the children had at least one cooked meal a day. In all this he had the support of Lucas Paeamara, the idealist mayor, who is also a teacher at the pri mary school and who would like the islanders to become more self-sufficient and de pend less on imported rice and corned beef.

Once, when the supply ship was late and the village shops had few supplies left, Lucas did not seem too worried, hoping that a few such shortages would show his people that there was

nothing wrong with locally

grown taro after all.

The island is supplied rather haphazardly by Oiseau des lies 11, a small cargoboat run by the

military administration,

freighting supplies to the outer islands free of charge. The Trieux, a troop carrier and landing craft, is also sometimes used to bring out supplies.

There is no regular link with

Tahiti and planes fly in only

when there is enough demand,

about once or twice a month.

In spite of the 1500 km separating the islands from Tahiti, there is a potential for tourism and the mayor would like to see a hotel built on Man gareva or one of the other islands in the lagoon. At pre sent there is only a guesthouse for the occasional holidaymaker on rest and re cuperation from Mururoa or the rare foreign tourist.

If only he could provide some form of employment, Lucas Paeamara feels he would be able to woo back the exiled Mangarevans and also ensure some kind of useful work for the school leavers. Although these do not appear to share their elders’ apathy, the lack of opportunity cannot fail to spoil them too. The opportunities are there however, although

mostly untapped.

Fishing in the lagoon is

gradually improving and there

are rich fishing grounds outside the reef but no boats are capable of going outside the la goon. An enterprising Tahitian has started a pearl farming pro ject off the small village of Taku on Mangareva’s western

shore, and the local grey pearls command good prices abroad.

Lemons, oranges, coffee and even copra fetch good prices in Tahiti and the French adminis tration has even offered free freighting facilities if only the Mangarevans could be per suaded to get up and gather the fruit. European-type vege tables could also be grown in the island’s fertile soil.

The aging priest, Father

Daniel, used to airfreight such produce to Tahiti and Mururoa from the thriving garden he established on the site of an ancient convent, but he is too old now and no one else seems interested in market garden

ing.

The administration is trying to help but there is no real development programme. An excellent road running around the whole of Mangareva is

nearing completion at great

expense. The school has been endowed with new buildings and even the huge nuclear shel ter, used only twice, has been offered as a community centre but it remains unused. Yet at the same time there is no public electricity supply and about a dozen private generators pro

vide electricity only to public

officials and those who can afford them.

Fresh water on the island is another problem. There are no wells and the only source is a small stream coming down from the hills. A proper catch ment area or a deep well could easily provide water for the whole population who at pre sent have running water for only two or three hours a day.

Mangareva, paradise lost

could well be paradise gained, for the potential is there, if only Lucas Paeamara’s people could somehow rediscover their lost esprit.

Mangareva’s kindergarten ... more than a third of the popu lation are children. Photo: Jimmy Cornell