Post #734275 by Club Nouméa on Sat, Jan 3, 2015 9:45 PM

Tahitian Style

Were Tahitian style to be summarised in one word, it would perhaps be "bright".

Trying to find Tahitian clothing actually made in Tahiti is no easy accomplishment, given that most of the fabrics and clothes sold in the shops in downtown Papeete are made anywhere from Fiji all the way to mainland China. That island print fabric you think is so delightful may have had to travel further to get to Papeete than you did, and it is definitely a case of "buyer beware".

So it was nice to see the Maohi Art Tahiti store (shown above) on Boulevard Pomare; everything was made locally. In fact so locally it was only a few kilometres' walk to their workshops, so I hiked out to Arue, east of Papeete, to have a look at their operation:

The turn-off, just before the Carrefour hypermarket on the main drag, is clearly signposted.

That's the side-entrance to the workshops...

This is the screen-printing workshop where the clothes are made.

And there was a clay workshop as well.

The firm was founded in 1958, and features a small museum space for visitors to look at:

On display is one of their earliest print patterns, cut into a 3 metre-long woodblock:

I couldn't help but think that would look great on my tiki lounge wall...

They also make these free-standing lamps with little wooden legs:

While I was out in Arue, I took the opportunity to check out the home of James Norman Hall, co-author of "Mutiny On The Bounty", among other books:

He moved to Tahiti in the 1920s and lived in this home until his death in 1951. It was like stepping back into another time:

His desk (note the Marquesan tiki bookend):

The house is full of the books that he had shipped at great expense via cargo freighter from the United States, back in the days before Amazon.com existed...

James Norman Hall was an American of the same generation as Hemingway and, like Hemingway, he volunteered for World War I at a time when most of his compatriots were rigorously isolationist in their outlook. He signed up for the British Army in 1914, spending 2 years at the front with the British Expeditionary Force:

Clowning around on a mule while he was with the 9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (he's the one seated on the mule).

In 1917, he joined the French Foreign Legion and was one of the members of the US Lafayette Squadron:

He flew as Eddie Rickenbacker's wing man, and shot down 4 German planes before he was himself shot down over German lines:

He very nearly ended the war in a German prison camp but, seeing the war was ending, decided not to wait for repatriation and escaped to Switzerland:

In the early 1920s, he met another US veteran, Charles Nordhoff, with whom he wrote the official history of the Lafayette Squadron, upon which they hatched a plan to escape from civilization to live in the South Pacific as writers and journalists. Hall with Charles Nordhoff in Papeete:

During the 1920s, they decided to write about a little-known incident in British naval history that happened at Tahiti and the resulting trilogy on the HMS Bounty and their subsequent novels made their names as two of the biggest-selling authors of their generation, over a decade before James A. Michener wrote his first book on the South Pacific.

So what has all this got to do with Tahitian style? Visiting the home was a reminder of the attraction of Tahiti for the world-weary, and James Norman Hall's great love of the island shows through in his autobiography "My Island Home". He admired the Tahitians for their love of life and humanity; a spirit that goes beyond mere appearances and social formalities. My visit offered an example of this and just why Tahiti is such a great place to live. Upon arriving, I was greeted by one of the two ladies working there as guides and was given the standard friendly welcome in French. Having been pointed in the right direction, I then wandered around the house looking at the exhibits. I couldn't help but overhear them talking in English to each other, so afterwards I headed back to the cafeteria area at the back of the house where they were. Reintroducing myself in English, I asked how come they were speaking in English. It turned out that one of the ladies was born in Rarotonga and the other one's father was Australian, so then it was their turn to ask how come I was speaking in French when I arrived even though I wasn't French. Their jaws dropped when I said I was from New Zealand (alas, too of my compatriots are rigorously monolingual), but they were even more surprised when I said I had walked from Papeete. Seven kilometres did not seem much to me but they immediately offered me a free fruit punch and then another free one for the road when they found out I was walking back to town too. As a parting gift, I was also presented with a copy of James Norman Hall's autobiography "My Island Home". What lovely ladies!

Strolling along the main thoroughfare back to Papeete that Friday afternoon, feeling on top of the world, and so glad I was in Tahiti rather than being stuck in my office working, various people heading home waved and smiled at the sight of me in my Hawaiian shirt and Panama hat, leisurely enjoying my fruit cocktail as they rushed past in their bikes, scooters and cars.

And there, standing on the side of the road, selling his catch of the day, was a guy who really typified Tahitian style, even if he wasn't stylishly dressed: