Teahupo’o: Wall of Skulls

A very brief history of French Colonized Tahiti

Teahupo’o is one of those waves that brings about awe to anyone who sees it, regardless of your knowledge of surfing. It shoots up quickly, a waterfall shooting out of the ocean like a torent, or a spring. The wave creeps up to the island from the south western pacific, hitting a bare reef from the open ocean. This gives it, even on a smaller day, much more force, throwing itself off the few feet of water and coral reef, giving the wave its iconic and sought after hollow interior. The wave at Teahupo’o, simply put, is dangerous and because of that, exhilarating. Even just watching clips of people riding the wave, kicking out of the steep side of its face just before it crashes on dry reef, you get the sense that, yes, this wave is incredible.

So, when the event started in earnest for the Paris Olympic games, I was excited, but also sort of hesitant. The swell was working well which meant we’d watch the best surfers in the world ride good waves. However, knowing the event was in Tahiti, the largest island by population in French Polynesia and effectively a colony of France, I was hesitant to be completely joyful. With the Olympics arriving in the small town of Teahupo’o, also came with it a blatant disregard for the local history along with the damages the French government has done to the lands and people living on this island. So, I wanted to share a brief history of Tahiti, beyond the waves.

Over the past two hundred or so years, Tahiti, the greater French Polynesia, and all the islands in the Pacific, sometimes referred to as Oceania, have been impacted, influenced and greatly damaged by western expansion. Starting with the 1767 “discovery” of Tahiti by Captain Wallis of Britain, to the visits made by Captain Cook three times before he was killed by the people of Hawai’i, Tahitian culture, ways of life, and histories have consistently tried to be transformed.

Already on the island was a rich and long lived culture, at least going back to 500 BCE. However after the island was chartered onto European maps, missionaries followed, converting and shunning much of the island's cultural practices. Not only did this bring the attempted killing of their long standing cultures, but also disease, and new practices of farming that began to reshape the islands. 

Over the decade, Tahiti became a more integrated colony, with French nationals moving to the island, many of whom would run the local government, with the indigenous Polynesians, or Ma’ohi as they are called in Tahiti, being treated as secondary to the ruling French. I know, what a surprise. In the early 60s, France built an airport on Tahiti, bringing the rest of the world to the island. However, just a decade after, with nuclear testing on atolls (small and old islands at the end of island archipelagos), a cloud of radiation passed over Tahiti, with most of the residents only being informed after it happened. This has made Tahiti an epicenter of radiation-induced cancer, by harming people directly, along with contaminating the soil and the water. This is only just beginning to come to light.

These nuclear tests, along with growing frustrations over their inability to govern themselves, a new party, Tavini Huiraʻatira, was formed in 1975 to advocate for independence and a cessation of nuclear testing. Slowly, this party has gained influence and now has a majority in the French Polynesian government.

However, it wasn’t until 2013, when French military documents were declassified, that it showed how bad the radiation really was, with the highest concentrations of damage being in the small town of Teahupo’o, further infuriating and igniting a greater desire to become a fully independent nation.

Since this history is so unknown to the greater world, the International Olympics Committee decided to have the surf contest in the small town of Teahupo’o. 

Because of the arrival of a greater world stage to the area, the IOC wanted a new judging tower to replace the wooden one that is often used for other surf competitions. However, this new aluminum judging tower was not accepted by local Tahitians, the International Surfing Association, and marine biologists from Hawai’i who were concerned about its potential hazards to the healthy coral ecosystem that exists in Teahupo’o. Despite this, they still built the judging tower. Although the tower seems to have caused minimal damage, the disregard for these local and scientific concerns is tragically typical.

It’s a beautiful wave but it does not belong to France, no matter how much they wish otherwise. 

Beyond this incredibly brief history I’ve shared, there has been a strong legacy of independence movements in French Polynesia dating back to its founding as a colony, and regaining steam just after World War Two. 

But why do I bring this up? It’s just the Olympics, a time to celebrate countries and cultures and human physical skills. The Olympics have never been that. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were heavily debated and almost boycotted outright by the United States due to Hitler’s regime. Hitler even attempted to use the games as a way to prove that Germans were the superior people. The 1968 Olympics showed Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their gloved fists on the podium, standing barefoot, now called the Black Power Salute protest. Jimmy Carter boycotted the Olympic games of 1980. And today, Taiwan can only compete if they do not use their flag or their name. They must call themselves Chinese Taipei in order to compete.

The Olympics are always political. We just choose when to look and when not to look. Politics permeates our world, and even the world of random niche sports, like surfing. 

From the judging tower, the view of the waves at Teahupo’o is breathtaking I’m sure. And yes, the wave at Teahupo’o is a much better wave than any you could dream of in the south of France. But Tahiti has its own history, well beyond French colonization. 

Since I couldn’t find a place to add this, just wanted to point out that the independence movement in Tahiti, unlike in other parts of French Polynesia like New Caledonia, is much more complicated with many fearing damage to the cost of imports and the impact on tourism, therefore the local economy, if they leave France outright. It’s a complicated issue and I recommend you look into it further. There’s A LOT I had to leave out for brevity. But this article in the New York Times that recently came out does a good job of explaining the damages of nuclear testing, but leaves out how integrated the anti-nuclear protests were to the desire to leave French rule. This is a great article from 1995 explaining this movement, as it was happening, much better.

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Thanks for reading! If you happen to be in West Marin this weekend go pick up a copy of the Point Reyes Light! I have a short little feature in there about a local sound recording project :)