Nu'utaivava Natapu Mara (1922 - 1986), better known as Nat Mara, was a French Polynesian-New Zealand pilot, musician and band leader.
Mara was born in Rurutu in the Austral Islands in 1922. At the start of World War II he moved to New Zealand with a group of Tahitian volunteers to join the Royal New Zealand Air Force. [1] [2] After training in Canada and the United Kingdom he joined the Free French Air Forces. [1] [2] He served as a wireless operator and air gunner in the Lorraine Squadron, flying 51 sorties and receiving numerous decorations, including the lanyard of the Legion of Honour. [2] He met and married Joyce Elizabeth Riley (1921-1959) in England during World War II. They emigrated from England to Rurutu and then to New Zealand in 1948. They had two children. He remarried after Joyce's death around 1958 and had three more children with his second wife. [3]
Following the war he returned to French Polynesia briefly to work as a radio operator and meteorologist, before moving to Auckland. [1] In Auckland he founded the Tahiti Nui Society and worked as a translator, [2] a hatmaker, and on the wharves. [3] He led the group Nat Mara and His Tahitians, which made numerous LPs of Tahitian music with Viking Records in Auckland. [4] He later led a Tahitian hula dance troupe that included his daughter Diane, [5] and performed in Auckland and throughout the Pacific in the late 1960s. [6] [7]
The pieces recorded by Nat Mara and His Tahitians are among the greatest standards of Polynesian music, constantly reissued and broadcast on the airwaves in the four corners of the world.
He died in Auckland in 1986. [3]
French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), with a population of 278,786 of which at least 205,000 live in the Society Islands and the remaining population lives in the rest of the archipelago.
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.
Pōmare IV, more properly ʻAimata Pōmare IV Vahine-o-Punuateraʻitua, was the Queen of Tahiti between 1827 and 1877. She was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Tahiti.
The Austral Islands are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of the French Republic in the South Pacific. Geographically, they consist of two separate archipelagos, namely in the northwest the Tupua'i islands consisting of the Îles Maria, Rimatara, Rūrutu, Tupua'i Island proper and Ra'ivāvae, and in the southeast the Bass Islands composed of the main island of Rapa Iti and the small Marotiri. Inhabitants of the islands are known for their pandanus fiber weaving skills. The islands of Maria and Marotiri are not suitable for sustained habitation. Several of the islands have uninhabited islets or rocks off their coastlines. Austral Islands' population is 6,965 on almost 150 km2 (58 sq mi). The capital of the Austral Islands administrative subdivision is Tupua'i.
Himene tarava is a style of traditional Tahitian music.
Tuamotuan, Paʻumotu or Paumotu is a Polynesian language spoken by 4,000 people in the Tuamotu archipelago, with an additional 2,000 speakers in Tahiti.
Austral is an endangered Polynesian language or a dialect continuum that was spoken by approximately 8,000 people in 1987 on the Austral Islands and the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The language is also referred to as Tubuai-Rurutu, Tubuai, Rurutu-Tupuai, or Tupuai. It is closely related to other Tahitic languages, most notably Tahitian and Māori.
This page list topics related to French Polynesia.
The Tahitians are the Indigenous Polynesian people of Tahiti and thirteen other Society Islands in French Polynesia. The numbers may also include the modern population in these islands of mixed Polynesian and French ancestry. Indigenous Tahitians are one of the largest Polynesian ethnic groups, behind the Māori, Samoans and Hawaiians.
Viking Records was an independent record label that featured many New Zealand and Polynesian recording artists.
The Kingdom of Tahiti or the Tahitian Kingdom was a Polynesian monarchy founded by paramount chief Pōmare I, who, with the aid of British missionaries and traders, and European weaponry, unified the islands of Tahiti, Moʻorea, Teti‘aroa, and Mehetiʻa. The kingdom eventually annexed the Tuamotus, and the Austral Islands.
The Pōmare dynasty was the reigning family of the Kingdom of Tahiti between the unification of the islands by Pōmare I in 1788 and Pōmare V's cession of the kingdom to France in 1880. Their influence once spanned most of the Society Islands, the Austral Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago.
Manu Farrarons is a French-born Polynesian tattoo artist. Farrarons' art is a mix of Polynesian styles and designs, mostly Tahitian and Marquesan, which he mixes with Māori and Hawaiian influences.
Tamaeva V or Temaeva V, formally Heimataura Tamatoa Tamaeva V, was the Arii vahine no Rimatara or queen of the island kingdom of Rimatara, an island within the larger Austral Islands archipelago, from 1892 to 1901. She served as regent for her predecessor Queen Tamaeva IV.
Chulu Chululu sometimes referred to as Chululu is a Fijian song that has been covered by a multitude of artists ranging from Peter Posa to Bill Sevesi & His Islanders. An English version of this song was a hit for Bill and Boyd.
The Tahitian Dog is an extinct breed of dog from Tahiti and the Society Islands. Similar to other strains of Polynesian dogs, it was introduced to the Society Islands and Tahiti by the ancestors of the Tahitian (Mā’ohi) people during their migrations to Polynesia.
Teuira Henry was a British Tahitian scholar, ethnologist, folklorist, linguist, historian and educator. She worked to reconstruct a lost manuscript on the history of Tahiti written by her grandfather, English missionary John Muggridge Orsmond, by using his original notes. Most of her writings were published posthumously by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum as the book Ancient Tahiti.
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.
Bruno Saura is a French anthropologist. Since the 1990s, he has been the author and regular contributor to numerous works on Polynesian culture. He is a professor of Polynesian civilization at the University of French Polynesia. His published works include a biography of Tahitian independence leader Pouvanaa a Oopa and a history of Rurutu.
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.
