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Air Tahiti Magazine 54
culture il aura le pouvoir temporel. il met en place un «code» de lois pour regir l archipel, qu il dicte au roi gregorio. tout y est : les lois sur les etrangers, sur les ventes a credit, sur l adultere, le vol, le blaspheme. laval fait meme construire une prison. on rapporte qu elle etait toujours pleine ! un code extremement rigoureux, donc mais attention, pas de nationalisme, ni de souci d expansion colonialiste chez laval. il est contre la politique d annexion de la france. le pere devient meme la bete noire des francais, notamment de l administration coloniale et egalement des etrangers dont il gene le commerce. pour laval, commercants et trafiquants faisant escale aux gambier representent, pour ses fideles, des exemples de vie facile. ils ont une mauvaise influence sur les mangareviens. le role de laval est donc de defendre le travail de ses chretiens et la vertu de leurs femmes laval se considere comme le gardien de la foi des mangareviens. d ailleurs beaucoup de ces commercants et autres marins iront protester aupres des autorites a tahiti, a tel point qu en 1871, monseigneur tepano jaussen, eveque de tahiti, prie laval de quitter les gambier pour le rejoindre a tahiti. il est accuse de trop proteger son archipel, malgre le desinteressement avec lequel il agit et qu on lui reconnait. «amelioration de la vie sociale, developpement des cultures vivrieres, tissage et constructions, scolarisation, c est pour oeuvrer sur ces terrains que nous sommes ici, guides seulement par le devouement», affirme le frere gilbert. les missionnaires des gambier ont cet etat d esprit et cette sincerite, c est certain. tous parlent couramment le mangarevien. ils ne partagent pas seulement la vie des mangareviens, ils en font partie integrante. pour avoir tout quitte, pour subir mille et une privations, pour travailler aussi durement a la construction d edifices religieux, pour avoir passe tant de temps a leurs cotes laval est un homme dechire, il a le sentiment d etre en detention a tahiti. «est-ce la ma recompense de 36 ans de mission ?» (1), se lamente-t-il. laval meurt a tahiti en 1880 dans l indifference. il est enterre au cimetiere de la mission a papeete, malgre ses supplications pour mourir aux cotes de «ses chretiens». une ultime volonte qui ne lui sera pas accordee par l eveque de l epoque, monseigneur tepano jaussen. et une triste constatation s impose : au moment du depart de laval en 1871, la population des gambier est estimee a 2 000 habitants. en 1896, 25 ans apres, elle n est plus que de 500. les maladies comme la tuberculose, la lepre mais aussi l alcool, ont emporte les trois quarts des habitants du fragile archipel. the infidel would be excommunicated, pure and simple. to be excluded for the community, for a polynesian was the ultimate sentence. laval had spiritual authority over the gambier and soon he would also have civil power. he set up a code of law to govern the archipelago that he dictated to king gregorio. the laws covered everything: laws about foreigners, sales on credit, adultery, theft, blaspheme etc. laval even built a prison that was apparently always full. the laws were strict but were without traces of nationalism or colonialist expansion. laval was against the political annexation of france. the father became the black sheep of the french, especially within the colonial administration and with foreigners since he hampered with commerce. for laval, merchants and dealers who stopped over in the gambier represented the easy life for his own followers. they had a bad influence on the mangarevans. many of the merchants and sailors sent complaints to the authorities in tahiti, to such a point that in 1871 his highness tepano jaussen, bishop of tahiti, asked laval to leave the gambier and join him in tahiti. laval was accused of over-protecting his archipelago even though he himself had no economic interests. father gilbert affirmed, "we are here to better social life, develop food crops, weaving and construction, to school the people, and to open up these lands. we are guided only by our devotion." the gambier missionaries were sincere in spirit, that much is certain. every one of them spoke fluent mangarevan. they not only shared life with the mangarevans but integrated themselves into it. having to leave everything after having suffered thousands of hardships, working intensely hard to build religious edifices and spending each day beside the mangarevans - laval was ripped apart and felt he was being held prisoner in tahiti. he lamented, "is this how they repay me for 36 years of missionary work?" (1). laval died in tahiti in 1880 in his sorrow. he is buried in the mission cemetery in papeete despite his wishes to die next to "his catholics - " his ultimate wish was not accorded to him by the bishop tepano jaussen. after laval's departure in 1871 the population was estimated at 2000; in 1896, twenty years later, there were only 500 people left in the gambier. diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy and alcoholism brought on the deaths of three quarters of the fragile population. laval le destructeur, laval le sauveur le pere laval, a la lecture de ses memoires, devoile des attitudes contradictoires. c est par lui que la culture ancienne des mangareviens est aneantie, et en meme temps, c est par lui qu elle est sauvee il convertit au catholicisme, avec toutes les consequences que cela implique, et pourtant, laval va etre le meilleur des ethnographes et des linguistes de son temps ! temoin privilegie des derniers jours de «paganisme» des mangareviens, il voulut decouvrir quelle avait ete la trame de leur passe traditionnel. laval brulait leurs idoles : le pretre qui etait en lui s en rejouissait, mais «non sans subtiliser des statues de divinites, qu il cachait dans un coin de sa case pour les expedier a rome ou les offrir a quelque dumont d urville.» (1) il va ecouter les anciens lui raconter tout ce qu avait ete leur passe, et le retranscrire textuellement dans son livre «histoire ancienne d un peuple polynesien». le frere gilbert ecrit meme : «le pere laval ( ) explique au laval the destructor and laval the savior in his memoirs, father laval unveils contradictory attitudes. because of him the ancient mangarevan culture was annihilated, yet at the same time it is through him that it was saved. he converted the entire population to catholicism and everything that that entails but he was also the best ethnologist and linguist of his time. a privileged witness to the last days of "paganism," of the mangarevans, he wished to discover the framework of their traditional past. laval burned their idols which made his inner priest rejoice but he did "steal statues of their divinities that he hid in a corner of his hut to send to rome to give to dumont d'urville." (1) he listened to the elders who told him of their past and wrote everything down in his book ancient history of a polynesian people. father gilbert wrote, "father laval . . . told doctor lesson about his boundless curiosity for the customs and traditions of these islands. it also pleases me to hear him tell stories of other times > r e v u e d e b o r d n ° 5 4 / a i r ta h i t i / o n - b o a r d m a g a z i n e n ° 5 4 3 3 29
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