Day Five, July 19: Marae Taputapuatea, Raiatea
Cook's 1769 map of the approaches to Oopoa and the sacred district. Iriru Pass is top left; Teavamoa Pass is bottom left on the map.
We slipped our mooring off of Fare early in the morning of July 19th and ran through Avamoa pass. Setting a course of 250T, we sailed 19 nm to Iriru pass on the southeastern reef of Raiatea. We then motored a short ways south to Baie Opoa and moored there. Taking a dingy we crossed the short distance over the bay to Pte. Atiopiti where stands the historic cultural and religious center of Polynesia, Te Ava Moa, The Sacred Harbor. The centerpeice of this most sacred of districts is the great marae Taputapuatea.
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This was the site of regular meetings of the chiefs of Polynesia in ancient times. Departing chiefs of other islands would take a stone from this marae to establish new marae on their home island. The new marae would also be called Taputapuatea.
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Cook visited this site in July 1769 with his guide, the great Polynesian navigator Tupaia. Tupaia, being a priest of Raiatea, performed the necessary rites of propitiation to allow foreigners into the sacred district. In an act of what we might consider Imperialism, Cook promply hoisted the English flag and took possession of the island in the name of his Btittanic Majesty.
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Here is an excerpt from Sir Joseph Banks' diary:
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“At noon today come to an anchor at Ulhietea in a bay Calld by the natives Oapoa, the entrance of which is very near a small Islet Calld Owhattera. Some Indians soon came on board expressing signs of fear, they were two Canoes each of which brought a woman, I suppose as a mark of confidence, and a pig as a present. To each of these ladies was given a spike nail and some beads with which they seemd much pleasd. Tupia who has always expressd much fear of the men of Bola Bola says that they have conquerd this Island and will tomorrow come down and fight with us, we therefore lose no time in going ashore as we are to have today to ourselves. On landing Tupia repeated the ceremony of praying as at Huahine after which an English Jack was set up on shore and Captn Cooke took possession of this and the other three Islands in sight viz. Huahine Otahah and Bola Bola for the use of his Britannick majesty. After this we walk together to a great Marai calld Tapodeboatea whatever that may signifie; it is different from those of Otahite being no more than walls about 8 feet high of Coral Stones (some of an immense size) filld up with smaller ones, the whole ornamented with many planks set upon their ends and carvd their whole lengh. In the neighbourhood of this we found the altar or ewhatta upon which lay the last sacrafice, a hog of about 80 pounds weight which had been put up there whole and very nicely roasted. ”
Excerpt From: Sir Joseph Banks. “The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks.” iBooks.
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The Approach to Raiatea from Huahine.
Iriru Pass
Marae were places of awe and mystery to the ancient Polynesians. They are still quiet lonely places, shaded over by the trees sacred to the gods. Sir Joseph banks would write in his journal, August 1769:
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“...these places are reverencd in the highest degree, no man aproaches them without taking his Cloths from off his shoulders and no woman is on any account permitted to enter them. ”
Excerpt From: Sir Joseph Banks. “The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks.”
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Marae Taputapuatea
Just prior to Cook's arrival in the Society Islands, the marae Taputapuatea became the center of a far-flung cult and voyaging network to the war god Oro. The surrounding distict was Te Po, the region of cosmic darkness and habitation of the gods. Images of the god Oro and stones from this marae were carried all over Polynesia from the Cook islands to the Tuomotus and Marquesas. In each new place the stones from this marae would be the begining of a new cult and marae to the Oro cult.
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The cult of Oro was led by a group of Aristocratic families called Arii. These were the chiefs, priests, warriors and navigators of Polynesain society. Travelling dance troups from this cult called the Arioi would travel from island to island in their great double hulled canoes and would entertain the locals with feasting and dancing in honor of their god Oro. (These dances could become quite lavicious, and were outlawed after Eurupean colonzation. Their revival in the form of Hula Dances, Luau and Meiva in the present day has been encouraged in large part from the descendents of the origional European colonizers who vacation to these islands and seek "authentic" Polynesaian culture.)
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Cook's native guide through the Society Islands, Tupaia, was a priest at this marae, when in 1760, warriors from Bora Bora overran Raiatea and the sacred distict. The high chief of the island was killed and the great tree that shelterd the marae was chopped down. Tupaia was given charge of the high chief's son and the sacred treasures of the district and fled to Tahiti where he was placed under the protection of the Arii chief of that island.
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Anguished over the desecration of the the most sacred of places in the Polynesian world, the priest Vaita would pronounce the following prophesy:
The gloroious offspring of Te Tumu
Will come and see this forrest of Taputapuatea.
Their body is different, our body is different
we are one species only from Te Tumu.
And this land will be taken from them
The old rules will be destroyed
And sacred birds from the land and the sea
Will also arrive here, will come and lament
Over that which this lopped tree has to teach
They are coming up on a canoe without and outrigger.
When Tupaia led Cook to this sacred site, he intended more than the usuall rites of propitiation. His was an act of defiance and revenge for the desecration of Taputapuatea by the warriors of Bora Bora. The prophecy was to be fullfilled at last by the Arrival of Cook and the Endevour.
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Vaca Moana, ed. K.R. Howe p. 254-255
Faaroa Bay
After lunch, we criused up Faaroa Bay and anchored on one of the old Sunsail moorings far into the bay. We took the dingy and traveled up the Apoomau River which drains into the bay. After about a quarter of a mile up river the water becomes fresh and clear, and the river bank becomes a tropical garden. The expeditions that founded New Zealand and Hawaii started from this river and bay.
I regret that we didn't have more time to explore this bay. It was absolutely lovely. Two of my memories are:
Meredith and I sticking the paddles into the water to check the depth for the engine: "No bottom; no bottom"; and
James (in the kayak) and his loquacity!!
- Cathy
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< This guy had a lot to say - Meredith
