Black Pearls

image by phyllis galembo

Black Pearls

“Tahiti is insular, full of peace & joy, but fully encompassed

by the horrors of life beyond its beaches. Push not off from

that isle, for thou canst never return.”--Herman Melville.

There is a wide wonderful archipelago

of 118 islands in the South Pacific--

referred to as French Polynesia.

Tahiti

is the largest island,

populated by Polynesians before Christ,

called it Otaherte.

In 1606 the Spanish called it Sagitaria.

In 1767 the English named it King George Island.

In 1772 the French called it New Cythera.

By the 1800’s it became known as Tahiti.

In 1788 the island was visited by the HMS Bounty.

In the 1820’s the English converted the natives

to Protestantism, introducing alcohol, firearms,

prostitution, venereal disease, & illness to them,

decimating the population, killing 60% of it. 

The French moved in with their Catholic missionaries

in tow, & for a bloody decade the new Catholics waged war

against the Protestants.

The French won, of course, proclaiming Tahiti

as an official colony of France. 

Gauguin resided there in the 1890’s. 

In 2007, I visited Tahiti for my firm,

on a quest to buy up some black pearls,

indigenous only to the Tuomota Islands

in French Polynesia.

I flew into the Capitol at Papeete,

& stayed in a hotel there, having to deal

with Chinese pearl dealers, finding out

that the Chinese were called

the “Jews of Tahiti”, being the

majority merchant class. 

French was the primary language there,

but plenty of English was spoken too. 

I loved hearing smatterings of the old Tahitian

language, the Reo Maohi, in the cafes,

bistros, & marketplaces.

They say that the island of Hawaii

in just 10 days gets more tourists

than Tahiti in a year, & that even

an average Las Vegas hotel has more rooms

available than in all 118 islands.

My last day there, my purchases concluded,

I wandered into the central park, & was

confronted with Gaston Temara, who stood

on a steamer trunk & gave political speeches.

He wore fake chains on his wrists,

& a ceremonial bag-mask on his face;

fierce & fascinating, he had led 

an unsuccessful bid for independence

the year before, but

his hardy black band of freedom fighters

was quickly put down by French troops

sent by President Jacques Chirac,

who claimed, after freeing the dissidents, 

that France did not believe that the majority

of Tahitians wanted independence.

Flying home to California, my company satchels

crammed with precious black pearl jewelry,

I could not get Temara out of my head.

Would something akin to liberty find a way

to flourish one day in Tahiti?

Something deeply American in me

truly hoped so. 

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

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