Project Description
Tahiti’s Peninsula
The Polynesian islands appeared several million years ago.
They emerged from the volcanic activity of hot spots; some of our high island’s craters being genuine vestiges.
When they sink into the ocean, our volcanic islands unveil a coral reef and become splendid atolls.
A Motu in Rangiroa
Each of the 5 archipelagos of French Polynesia has its own geological history, which explains the birth of incredible and impressive natural sites – interest of so many Polynesian legends.
French Polynesia is also a story of men, more precisely a story of navigators…
The first colonisation in the South Pacific goes back to 3000 years BC and that of Polynesia goes back to 2000 years BC.
A carved Tiki in the lagoon of Moorea
Many theories were proposed, one of them says that American navigators were the first occupants of Oceania. However, several clues such as the languages spoken, proved that they belonged to Southeast Asian communities.
During this era of colonisation, these experienced navigators travelled on double outrigger canoes which were able to transport about fifty passengers and to embark food, animals and plants.
They constituted the Austronesian family by sharing the same language and the same culture. They would later be divided into 3 groups: Polynesia (“many islands”), Micronesia (“small islands”) and Melanesia (“black islands”).
Over thousands of years, their sea journeys and their tenacity led them all around Oceania, and made them shore in new lands, some of them now bearing the names of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia or Tahiti and Her Islands.
A rich Polynesian history
Around 850 AD, the Polynesian triangle emerged. It is composed of 3 summits which are – the Hawaii islands located in the north, the Easter Island located in the South-East, and New Zealand located in the South-West.
As for French Polynesia, it is composed of archipelagos situated in the far east of the South Pacific; the Marquesas being the starting point of migration towards other archipelagos and islands of the Polynesian triangle…