Chief Miko | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Miko Pouira Krainer 3 april 1959 Papeete |
| Nationality | French American |
| Known for | Orator, sculptor, traditional navigator, musician, singer, traditional leader and activist |
Michel Toofa Pouira Krainer, known as Chief Miko (born 3 April 1959) [1] is a French Polynesian speaker, sculptor, traditional navigator, musician, singer, customary chief and activist. He played a major role in the Polynesian cultural revival, particularly in the revival of Polynesian tattoos.
His grandfather adopted young Michel the day he was born. [2] He spent a happy childhood in Arue, between the mountains and the lagoon. A good student, young Michel likes to say that he is the only one in his class to have obtained his school certificate.
From a young age his uncle, the sculptor Vaiere Mara , trained young Michel in the search for materials to work with, as well as in carving wood using a gouge and a mallet. [3] In 1972 he joined Arue 's dance troupe, Fetia, later renamed Ahutoru Nui in 1989. He was twelve years old and the raatira (troop leader) Teipo Temaiana took advantage of his knowledge to have him make instruments for the collective. [4]
At this time, Michel was told that his father was making canoes in Honolulu, and he set out to find him there. After a year dedicated to learning the language, he returned to high school on Oahu . He was adopted by a family of artists from Waikiki . A founding member of the Polynesian voyaging society, the father, Billy Richmond, then worked on the construction site of the Hokule'a canoe. [5]
After the baccalaureate, Michel obtained his arborist diploma. He created a pruning company, Genesis tahitian tree service . Having won large contracts in California, he soon employed a dozen people. In 1990 the young Michel Pouira Kreiner became a dollar millionaire. He then organizes big Polynesian festivals. In 1992 Michel Pouira Kreiner took part in the creation of the organization Nā Kalai Waʻa Moku o Hawaiʻi . From 1994 they began an ambitious project : a traditional canoe of more than 16 meters, Makali'i [6] . The project ends with a three-month navigation to the island of Mau Piailug, Satawal. The only Polynesian on board a crew made up of Micronesians, Michel Pouira Kreiner continued the journey for several months and visited the corners of this inaccessible archipelago. [7]
In 1999, back on Oahu, Michel welcomed the Te Aurere canoe. He then meets the traditional tattooist Purotu, a member of the crew, and undertakes to have his entire body tattooed the old-fashioned way, using combs. He then decides to rename himself Chief Miko. [8] He leaves the management of his business to his sons and throws himself headlong into what he perceives as a mission ; safeguarding and promoting its ancestral culture, which it considers to be a heritage in danger of extinction. [9]
The Nā Kalai Waʻa Moku o Hawaiʻi organization then undertakes to offer a traditional canoe to Mau Piailug, to thank him for the help he provided in the numerous navigations aboard the Hokule'a canoe. Chief Miko is participating in the construction of this project called Alingano Maisu . According to Mau Piailug's instructions, it adorns the bow of the canoe with a sculpture of an albatross, a symbol of the bond that unites the peoples of the Pacific. The canoe is gifted to Mau Piailug during Hōkūleʻa 's 2007 voyage "Kū Holo Mau" . Miko himself steers the canoe to Satawal Island, where on March 18, 2007, Mau Piailug presides over a traditional Pwo ceremony for the navigators. Which hadn't happened for 56 years. Five Hawaiians and eleven others are inducted as master navigators, including Mau's son, Sesario Sewralur [10] current captain of the canoe Alingano Maisu .
Chief Miko returned to Tahiti in 2008, after more than 25 years in Hawaii. He becomes raatira (leader) of the orero (speakers) of the Heikura Nui troupe. With Heikura Nui, they won two grand prizes at Heiva i Tahiti . Without a written title deed, he chose to settle on the land of his paternal ancestors in Arue, in a traditional bamboo house with a large vegetable garden. There he carved wood and made Tahitian medicines with the medicinal plants he cultivated. On June 24, 2013, the Papeete court ordered his expulsion. Chief Miko must then move into a modern house. It was there that he took on the challenge of making large wooden Tahitian tikis [11] for the Chinese market. [12]
In 2014 Miko joined the CCCTP collective, Center de Création Contemporaine Teroronui de Papeete, [13] a transdisciplinary collective chaired by Jonathan Bougard, whose objective was to work towards the perpetuation of local cultures while supporting the relationship with the means of modern communications. [14] Within this collective Miko finds artists such as Max Tohitika, Julien Magre, Massimo Colombini, Moana Heitaa and the sculptors Pitore and Teva Victor . They exhibited at the Maison de la Culture de Tahiti, [15] Te Fare Tauhiti Nui, then at the University of French Polynesia. [16] According to a text by Jean-Louis Poitevin, “The CCTP intended “ giving the desire for image a central place in the cultural and social life of Tahiti. (...) From tradition to the diffusion of this tradition, from tattooing with a comb to new technologies, this exhibition questions and provides its answers, defines what it means to be an artist today in Tahiti and gives pride of place to artists as well. Polynesians than with offbeat looks. [17] " Beyond the exhibition of paintings, sculptures, Indian inks, happenings and live creations are organized : Chief Miko sculpts live with a chainsaw, then traditional tattoo sessions with a comb, a seminar around these aspects follow. [18]
But Chief Miko is too cramped in this institutional framework. Within the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi governed by King Aleka [19] he transformed into a real activist, and entered into open conflict with the local and French authorities. [20] He made the headlines of Polynesian news for his outrageous actions such as the occupation and claim of ownership of the Arahurahu marae of Paea, and attracted the animosity of part of the Polynesian population, [21] who does not wish to return to the times of the ancestors.
Chief Miko features in the documentary Tatau, la culture d'un art, directed in 2014 by Jean-Philippe Joaquim. [22]
In 2017 Chief Miko was the subject of a documentary film co-directed by Jonathan Bougard and Jean-Philippe Joaquim, Miko, le chef voyant. [23]
Tahiti is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Australia. Divided into two parts, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti, the island was formed from volcanic activity; it is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs. Its population was 189,517 in 2017, making it by far the most populous island in French Polynesia and accounting for 68.7% of its total population; the 2022 Census recorded a population of 191,779.
Kahuna is a Hawaiian word that refers to an expert in any field. Historically, it has been used to refer to doctors, surgeons and dentists, as well as priests, ministers, and sorcerers.
The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Heyerdal's book on the expedition was entitled The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas. A 1950 documentary film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A 2012 dramatized feature film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) is a non-profit research and educational corporation based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. PVS was established to research and perpetuate traditional Polynesian voyaging methods. Using replicas of traditional double-hulled canoes, PVS undertakes voyages throughout Polynesia navigating without modern instruments.
Hōkūleʻa is a performance-accurate waʻa kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, it is best known for its 1976 Hawaiʻi to Tahiti voyage completed with exclusively traditional navigation techniques. The primary goal of the voyage was to explore the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents or sailing from the Americas. DNA analysis supports this theory. A secondary project goal was to have the canoe and voyage "serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians."
The Makahiki season is the ancient Hawaiian New Year festival, in honor of the god Lono of the Hawaiian religion.
Pius "Mau" Piailug was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Mau's Carolinian navigation system, which relies on navigational clues using the Sun and stars, winds and clouds, seas and swells, and birds and fish, was acquired through rote learning passed down through teachings in the oral tradition. He earned the title of master navigator (palu) by the age of eighteen, around the time the first American missionaries arrived in Satawal. As he neared middle age, Mau grew concerned that the practice of navigation in Satawal would disappear as his people became acculturated to Western values. In the hope that the navigational tradition would be preserved for future generations, Mau shared his knowledge with the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS). With Mau's help, PVS used experimental archaeology to recreate and test lost Hawaiian navigational techniques on the Hōkūleʻa, a modern reconstruction of a double-hulled Hawaiian voyaging canoe.
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Faʻafaite is a reconstruction of a double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe. It was built in 2009 by the Okeanos Foundation for the Sea. It is operated by the Fa’afaite-Tahiti Voyaging Society and used to teach used to teach polynesian navigation.
Vaieretiai Mara, better known as Vaiere Mara was a French Polynesian sculptor. He was the first modern Polynesian sculptor, and the first Polynesian artist to sign his works.
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