June 2002

Hello everyone,

Have you ever heard of the Gambier islands ?
It is a small group of hilly islands surrounded by a huge coral reef, at the southern end of French Polynesia ; it was made famous in the 18th century when a small group of french missionaries came here, converted the Polynesians to christianism, and edicted a very strict "Mangarevian Code" : no sex, no nudity, no fun, prayers, and build churches... thirty years later the population of the archipelago had been divided by two - but the same happened with others flavors of christianism in other islands groups, Marquesas, Hawaii, many many deaths having been caused by unknown illnesses brought by the first ships to visit those islands.

150 years after the end of this "theocracy", several churches remain, one on each island, built of huge limestone rocks the natives had to fetch on the outer reef and bring back on wooden rafts. The churches have been well maintained, and are one of the good reasons to come and visit this little known archipelago.

About a thousand Mangarevians live on the main island, and just a handful more on the other islands, such as Bertrand, a frenchman, his Mangarevian wife and doughter Tutana : they work hard growing mother-of-pearl to produce the black Pearls unique to French Polynesia. It is a lot of work, but the place where they work is so stunning, a wonderful turquoise blue lagoon...

Many of the fish in Gambier are victim of a well known illness called "Ciguatera" : it is due to a microscopical seaweed known as "Gambierdiscus", for it has been discovered here. These algae are eaten by the fish that live in the coral reefs, and cause strong allergy to people who eat the fish ; by chance, the small "bonito" and the small jack that are numerous in the lagoon are not subject to ciguatera, and my son Teiki, who has always been an able fisherman, and who has come to spend a few days on Banana Split, has fisherd 12 bonito for his 12 th birthday !

I have been in these islands for close to 6 weeks; it will soon be time to move on, to vist another island group, the Tuamotu, a little further north.. but it would not be a surprise to me if I were to come back to the Gambier in a few months, when the sun returns to the southern hemisphere.

In the meantine, Nana (that's how they say Good Bye in Polinesia; cute, isn't it ?)