Nuku Hiva - TIKI's and MOAI's - 2 of 3

For over 100 years culture had disappeared here and was restricted but a new Bishop arrived in 1987 and brought a cultural revival with an annual festival bringing together all of the Islands and a reconciliation of the traditional culture and religion. Interestingly “red” is their “color of strength” (always a red brick in construction and they use red platforms) and the grapefruit tree is their “source of life”. There are currently approximately 3,000 people living in the Marquesas. Most of the villages have 300 people with the main village here occupied by 2,000.

The views here are spectacular and we stopped at an interesting Church with tribal history and later, the ceremonial religious site of Te A'Aitua, to taste the local fruit (breadfruit, taro, 45 types of mango, coconut and many kinds of fruit) ... in particular grapefruit that they rave about (tasted like grapefruit to us). This was the location of the 2011 Marquesas Islands Arts which happens on alternating Islands every 2 years…it is the cultural even that is very significant to them as it brought back culture to the Islands. We saw many of the statues (TIki's and Moai's) that remain form the festival Note: all the ancient statues are now in museums, mostly in NY and Paris others are buried under Churches where they were hidden during the period of cultural repression).Læs mere