Nuku Hiva
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the island of Nuku Hiva. For the administrative commune which includes the island, see Nuku-Hiva.
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| Country | France French Polynesia |
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| Archipelago | Marquesas Islands | |||
| Region | South Pacific Ocean | |||
| Area | 339 km² | |||
| Coastline | - km | |||
| Highest elevation | Tekao 1,224 m |
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| Population - Density |
2,660 ppl. (2007) 7.8 ppl./km² |
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Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island.
Herman Melville wrote his book Typee based on his experiences in the Taipivai valley in the eastern part of Nuku Hiva. Robert Louis Stevenson's first landfall on his voyage on the Casco, was at Hatiheu, on the north side of Nuku Hiva, in 1888. Nuku Hiva was also the site for Survivor: Marquesas, the fourth installment of the popular CBS reality television show in the US.
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[edit] Geography
Its highest point, in the northwestern part of the island, is Tekao, which reaches an elevation of 1,224 m (4,016 ft.).
The coastline of western Nuku Hiva is characterized by a steep, but fairly regular coastline, indented occasionally by small bays leading to deep valleys, which lead into the interior. There are no villages on this side.
The coastline of the eastern part of the island has few places to land by sea and takes the brunt of the ocean swells., The north, on the other hand, is indented by deep bays, the largest of which are Anaho and Hatiheu.Aakapaa bay is not as large but has a Village of the same name. The south has fewer baysTaiohae. Taipivai, Hooumi,Hakapoovai, (parts of the larger "Baie de controleur")and the bays of Hakaui and Hakatea both accessed by the same narrow entrance. The central part of the island is a high plateau called Toovii, covered primarily by a tall-grass prairie, on which experiments in cattle raising are taking place for the first time, 15 years ago all the cattle were wild and hunted with rifles. On the western edge rises Tekao, the island's highest peak. The western and northern edges of Toovii are a mountain ridge, which catches much of the rain that waters the island. Pine forest plantations covering large areas all around the crater of Toovii give an overall impression of the lower Alps and parts of Germany, Wales and Switzerland.In one place, Vaipo Waterfall, the collected water falls off a highland and falls 350 m (1148 ft). The slopes of the north western side of the island are much drier than the rest of the island, and are often described as a desert"La Terre Déserte" Again very different from the inhabited valleys with a form of tundra over which cattle and horses roam free.
[edit] Administration
Nuku Hiva is administratively part of the commune (municipality) of Nuku-Hiva, itself in the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands.
The administrative centre of the commune of Nuku-Hiva and also of the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands is the settlement of Taiohae, located on the south side of Nuku Hiva, at the head of the bay of that same name.
[edit] Demographics
The population in 2007 was 2,660. This is hugely reduced from the numbers encountered in the end of the 16th century when the Spaniards first sighted the island. Contacts with Europeans brought infections such as venereal disease and influenza causing massive mortality rates at such an alarming speed that a great deal of the 'shamanistic' knowledge of plants as sources of medicine was lost.
The demographic split of the island is primarily Polynesian with a small proportion of Europeans (essentially from Metropolitan France). At the 2002 census, 92.6% of Nuku Hiva's residents were people born in French Polynesia. 148 people, making up 5.6% of Nuku Hiva's residents, were people born in Metropolitan France.[1]
The primary diet of people tends to be Breadfruit,taro, manioc,coconut and many kinds of fruit (growing in abundance all over the island), Goats, fish and, more rarely, pigs, are the main source of meat but there is a growing amount of local beef available. However imported food is freely available, apples, grapes, celery, even sliced bread from New Zealand ! With two local bakeries, local baguettes are another cheap, (subsidised) staple, along with many tons of rice consumed. There are a great deal of wild pigs on the island as well as those reared on the agricultural college, these latter are not of the wild variety, which is a cross between the polynesian pig brought by the first settlers and the wild boar brought by the Europeans. The wild pig is customarily killed by hand with a knife after being hunted down by a pack of dogs, as a matter of personal honour. They are also trapped in pits. Traditionally, the young men of the island wore the teeth of wild pigs around their neck as an adornment to woo the women. Many wear them today.[citation needed]
Cannabis grows in abundance in this tropical climate, but is carefully grown well away from the prying eyes of State Officials.[citation needed]
There is one jail on the island, which was generally used for 'short stay' internments such as the last 3 months of their sentence and was also often altogether empty. Lately, however, prisoners can opt to do their full sentence here if they have no family on Tahiti so the Nuku Hiva Hilton now has guests all the time.
[edit] Communications
Nuku Hiva is served by a single-runway airport in the northwest corner of the island, approximately 30 miles by road, northwest of Taiohae.
[edit] History
[edit] Before 1600
Nuku Hiva was, in ancient times, the site of two provinces, Te I'i covering somewhat more than the western two thirds of the island, and Tai Pi, covering the eastern third.
[edit] 1600 to the Present
In 1813, Commodore David Porter claimed Nuku Hiva for the United States, but the United States Congress never ratified that claim, and in 1842, France took possession of the whole group, establishing a settlement (abandoned in 1859)
Latest studies indicate that the first people to arrive here, did so from Micronesia, around 2000 years ago, only later colonising Tahiti, Hawaii, The Cook Islands and New Zealand. The legend has it that Ono the god of creation promised his wife to build a house in one day, so he gathered together land and created these islands, which are all named after parts of the house, Nuku Hiva being the roof, everything he had left over he threw to one side and created a dump which is called Ua Huka! From these supposed origins the population rose to an untenable size, first European estimates vary from 100,000 to 50,000, Judging from the abandoned Pae pae, (living platforms of stone) probably far more than that. Food became of prime importance, the breadfruit was the staple, taro, plaintain and manioc also played a big part. As for meat, fish was the main source, but even so was limited because of the quantity needed to feed so many mouths, pigs, chickens and dogs were also cultivated, and hunted when they took to the wilds, again, there were limits to this supply of food also.It is still debated why polynesians practiced cannibalism, indeed all pacific islands did so, atoll islanders all the more so, in view of this, I think that cannibalism was more for food than ritual, although ritual played a big part. An offering to the gods was called Ika, which means Fish, and a sacrifice was Caught, just like a fish and hung by a fish hook in the sacred places. Those to be eaten were tied and hung up in trees until needed, then had their brains bashed out on execution blocks with a giant club! Women and children seem to be just for food, whereas warriors killed in battle were offerings to the gods and were eaten by the vainquers to absorb their power, and their skulls were kept by their slayers for the same reason! There is no archeological proof, but the fact that the sweet potato and certain other plants which existed nowhere else in the world other than here and South America indicate that there was some form of contact between the two places. The early migrators would have been more like Fijians, with black skin and frizzy hair, indeed some Marquisians do have these traits, but for the most part they have features not unlike the mexicans of today, they even had reddish hair and some had blue eyes, but that's another story! According to your point of view, we now come to the pivotal point of "Te Enata". There are those who say that the coming of the white man was a catastrophy, in a sense they are right, at the time they brought nothing but evil. They took away their culture, their liberty and replaced it with something completely alien, they brought diseases and a new religion that did nothing, at the time, to help. However, in hindsight, given the fact that once an advanced people has ‘contaminated' a primitive people, there is no going back, except in very isolated cases, viewing the situation that exists here today, life is better than it was 200 years ago; But the Marquesas only scraped by by the skin of their teeth! On the 21st of July 1595 Mendana of Spain stopped at Fatu Hiva and called the islands Los Marquesas after the wife of the viceroy of Peru. Cook likewise visited the south in 1774, then Marchand in 1791. There seems little evidence that these visits led to the introduction of diseases, perhaps because of the slow passage times inhibiting the diseases aboard. It seems that it was the commercial shipping, taking on sandalwood and the whaling ships that brought the epidemics that killed 9 out of 10 polynesians in general and far more than that in the Marquesas. A ship from Peru captured people from Ua Pou and took them back as slaves, as the catholic church had converted the islands to christianity, there was a protest and they were sent back, those still alive at least, the problem was they went ashore with typhoid fever! From a population in excess of 100,000 in 1820 it fell to 6,000 in 1872, to 3,000 in 1911 and to the lowest in 1927, 2,200! It seemed that there was no way the Marquesians could survive, but two French doctors, (France took over the islands in1842,but left them to their fate!) Toured the islands giving vaccinations and medical care thus halting the heavy death toll. Leprosy was still a problem 20 years ago! Today the population stands at 8,500 living on the 6 islands, but there are over 20,000 living elsewhere! Looking at the Marquesian today, it is clear that life is on the up! There is no more famine or warfare, most diseases are eliminated, the last one is Elephantitis which is almost gone. Due to its isolation from Tahiti, and indeed the will of the majority, it has been spared the fate of its capitol and remains a mysterious undeveloped archipelago unlike any other I have seen! A little point of interest, In Rapanui (Easter Island) through a reason not clearly understood, trees became extinct. In the Marquesas they have found the remains of dogs but when the first whites arrived the dog was unknown. A London missionary society member named Crook was deposited on the island of Tahuata with a sea chest and a dog. His chest disappeared immediatly and he was left to the charity of the islanders. His dog aroused curiosity and when he was asked what it was, assuming that they had dogs he didn't say "dog" but "Peto" which was the dog's name! So today, in Marquisian, a dog is ‘Peto' and to send it out one shouts Kerrau! Which is an approximation of Cockney "Get out!"
In 2002, France successfully requested that a 20 year moratorium be applied to French Polynesia to stop it from being incorporated into the European Union. One of the driving factors was to stop non-French investment in property for the time being.[citation needed]
The then mayor of Nuku Hiva, Lucien Kimitete, who promoted separation of the Marquesas Islands from French Polynesia within the French Republic, was killed in an airplane accident in May 2002, along with MP Boris Leontieff, Mayor of Arue in Tahiti. Many locals still believe this crash was not properly investigated. There is a considerable amount of latent resentment and hostility about this.[citation needed] Since the death of Lucien Kimitete, Marquesan political leaders have repeatedly declared themselves in favor of separating from French Polynesia and remaining within the French Republic in case French Polynesian political leaders in Tahiti would proclaim the independence of French Polynesia.[2]
[edit] Trivia
Lucien Berland named a genus of pisaurid spider, Nukuhiva.
[edit] Resource
- Stevenson, Robert Louis. In the South Seas, Being an Account of Experiences and Observations in the Marquesas, Paumotur and Gilbert Islands in the Course of Two Cruises, on the Yacht Casco (1888) and the Schooner Equator. 1900.
Herman Melville's first ever publication "Typee" documents the ways and mores of the people of Taipivai .
[edit] External links
- Nuku Hiva information, with map, from Tahiti Nui Travel
- Nuku Hiva travel and attraction guide
- Nuku Hiva information
- Presidency of French Polynesia article on Nuku Hiva
[edit] References
- ^ (French) Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF). POP6 - Population totale par commune de résidence selon le sexe et lieu de naissance (XLS). Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
- ^ Polémique à Tahiti: les Marquises veulent se rapprocher de Paris
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