Tahiti Intertwined: Ancestral Land, Tourist Postcard, and Nuclear Test Site
Author(s)
Kahn, Miriam
Abstract
In this article, I apply ideas from Foucault, Lefebvre, and Soja about thirdspace, or space beyond dualisms, to an understanding of “Tahiti” as a complex, intertwined place. For most Tahitians, a sense of place is rooted in land, which individuals describe as a nurturing mother. Genealogical ties to land define personal identities and social relationships. For the world at large, however, the perception of Tahiti is based on seductive, mass-mediated, touristic images. The perpetuation of these images, whose origins go back two-hundred years, has become increasingly enmeshed in the economic and political agendas of the French colonial government. The resumption of nuclear testing in French Polynesia in 1995-96 and the subsequent rioting by Tahitians, which disseminated negative images throughout the world, provide a setting for an analysis of Tahiti that moves beyond dualisms. Tahiti is understood instead as an intertwined thirdspace, equally real and imagined, immediate and mediated.
