AVOIR MARQUESAS

                           

Southern Cross....Crosby, Stills, and Nash.....a great song! First time I heard it in the 80's......" off then wind on this heading lies the Marquesas"....got me. Marquesas. What?  Where?   I really didn't know. Then we heard of the Aranui trip to the Marquesas...we got hooked on the adventure and that song kept playing reruns in my head.
The Marquesas are remote, and really one of the last places on this busy earth where one can find tranquility, a "simple" life, and few, if any tourists. There are over 15 islands in the Marquesa archipelago, but only 6 are inhabited. The people who live here speak a different local dialect than Tahitians, and in fact each island had a different accent and some different words for common objects. Once there were over 70,000 inhabitants, but after the Catholic missionaries invaded and brought disease, rules, and regiment...the numbers dropped to 2,000. In fact, they were almost wiped out by cholera and small pox...and alcohol problems, because they had never used anything like it until the invaders showed them how to make alcohol out of pretty much anything that grows there. Their dances, tattoos, and language were deemed barbaric and the church outlawed anything they deemed offensive to god. The French government who had claimed the archipelagos as a "prestige" move.....literally did nothing to support them during this time. Finally, a brave priest stood up and said enough! It was he and the elders who were left to  slowly start bringing the old ways back. The Marquesans are proud, and should be. They have reclaimed their languages, dances ( although now the dancing reflects Modern Maori culture, whom they admire). They sing the old songs and tattoos have become very important and we actually had 2 lectures on the reasons and style of tattoo.
Everywhere we went, people were happy to greet us. Although the French government now supports the Marquesas, the people prefer to live off the land, with most men fishermen, carvers, or working as drivers and local crew when the Aranui docks once every 2 weeks. The children go to Primary school on each island, then secondary school on the 2 largest islands. School ends at 16 and while they are welcome to come to France for more education, and college, most parents discourage it. That seems  shame to Western thought, but as we learned....they really have everything they need to live happily.....health care is free, climate is temperate, the eat local food from land and sea and it is plentiful. The internet has recently changed somethings, but not as much as the rest of the world. They are not rich by our standards but feel rich as they can easily afford to buy a truck(very few cars on then islands) and live a fulfilling life so far way from the rest of civilization. I tried a few times to engage some into a political discussion, but it really isn't a very interesting subject for them. 👏👏👏👏. 
So, for 2 weeks we were learning, experiencing, and enjoying something so different than our lives. No wonder Gauguin fell in love with the Marquesas...and lived out his life there. Not much has changed.....and if they are happy with that, that is a good thing in this fast paced world.