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Air Tahiti Magazine 54
culture father auguste,mangarevan priest "laval was fascinated by the mangarevan people" one hundred and thirty six years after father tryphon, father auguste is the twelfth priest to preside over the gambier, the archipelago considered to be the cradle of catholicism in french polynesia. in the following interview he gives us his point of view as a fellow human being as well as a priest, on father laval and the cultural and spiritual heritage that has been left to him 172 years later. > le cannibalisme ceci dit, les mangareviens, aujourd hui, reprochent aux missionnaires d avoir detruit tous les symboles de leur culture ancestrale, les marae, les tiki. c est le seul archipel ou il n y en a plus aucun ! je pense qu il y a eu un tel choc culturel entre mangareviens et occidentaux, que necessairement, la rencontre a ete brutale. mais pouvait-il en etre autrement ? il faut replacer les faits dans leur contexte. les missionnaires ont «du» eliminer, bruler les symboles et les croyances des mangareviens pour leur permettre de s apercevoir que cela ne produisait aucun effet nefaste sur leur vie ! les mangareviens ont ainsi ete liberes de leurs anciens dieux, qui quelque part, les asservissaient. aujourd hui, tout le monde est d accord pour reconnaitre le grand bien apporte par les missionnaires, c est-a-dire le christ. les mangareviens ne regrettent-ils pas la disparition de ces temoignages de leur ancienne culture ? il est vrai qu il y a une sorte de conflit, actuellement, car il n existe plus aucun symbole «visuel» de la culture ancienne aux gambier. en 1934, l archeologue hawaiien peter buck est venu the land in the archipelago. the common people didn't own anything but worked entirely for the kings. it looks like these people were able to gain land from the missionaries in "exchange" for their faith . . . becoming land owners did a lot of good for the mangarevans. this was a sort of liberation. do you think the missionaries liberated the mangarevans? before the missionaries arrived the law was much more strict. the catholics completely turned over the social system. they stopped human sacrifices, cannibalism. . . that said, today's mangarevans reproach the missionaries for having destroyed all of their symbols, their ancestral culture, the marae [temples] and their tiki. this is the only archipelago where there is absolutely nothing left! i think that there was such a big culture clash between the mangarevans and the europeans that the meeting could only be brutal. but could they have done otherwise? one has to place everything within their context. the missionaries had to burn all the symbols and beliefs of the mangarevans in order for them to understand that this had absolutely no disastrous effects on their lives! in this way, the mangarevans were liberated from their ancient gods and, in some ways, slavery. today everyone is in agreement about the over-all good that the missionaries brought us, that is to say christ. so the mangarevans don't have regrets about the disappearance of all the relics of their ancient culture? it's true that there is a conflict today since there are no visual symbols left of the ancient gambier culture. in 1934 the hawaiian archaeologist peter buck came to search the lands of the archipelago. he was deeply distressed because he couldn't find anything at all. the accusations are naturally pointed to the missionaries and, more precisely father laval. despite all of this, peter buck is grateful to laval for all he wrote about the mangarevan culture! it's all such a paradox. . . how would you explain this paradox today? laval as a destructor and yet, at the same time the savior of the mangarevan culture? he was fascinated by the mangarevan people and fell in love with our language. he consistently wrote about how our words were beautiful, poetic and filled with images. he hadn't expected to fall so greatly under this charm. but, thanks to him, we have a unique witness to the incredible richness of our ancient culture. the most important aspect was saved: the language. we owe this to the missionaries. today, lots of people think that by wearing a tattoo is all it takes to feel like a polynesian. this search for identity essentially expresses a bad state of being more than a truth in the search. a culture is preserved first and foremost through language. the culture of our ancestors is different than ours but we express ourselves in the same language. this helps us to not forget our history, songs, place names, etc. i think that with culture, it's important not to be nostalgic. the culture is alive. before there were fishing rituals and today we have gps! that's just how it is! we can not refuse modernity, it's the normal evolution of life. the mangarevans of today are not those of yesterday. pretre polynesien, le tout premierde mangareva. en 1870, etait depuis, il n y avait plus eu de pretre originaire des gambier fouiller les terres de l archipel. il a fait part de sa grande desolation, car il n a rien trouve du tout. ses accusations se sont portees tout naturellement vers les missionnaires et plus precisement le pere laval. malgre tout, peter buck a une grande reconnaissance envers laval, pour les ecrits que celui-ci a laisses sur la culture mangarevienne ! c est paradoxal comment expliques-tu aujourd hui, ce paradoxe : laval a la fois un destructeur et, quelque part, sauveur de la culture mangarevienne ? il a ete fascine par le peuple mangarevien, tombant profondement amoureux de notre langue. il ecrit sans cesse a quel point elle est belle, poetique, imagee. il n avait pas prevu d etre sous le charme ! mais grace a lui, nous avons des temoignages uniques et d une richesse incroyable quant a la culture ancestrale. le plus important a ete sauvegarde : la langue. nous le devons aux missionnaires. aujourd hui, beaucoup estiment que porter un tatouage suffit a se sentir polynesien. cette recherche identitaire exprime essentiellement un mal-etre, plus qu une verite dans la quete. une culture passe avant tout par la langue. la culture de nos ancetres est differente de la notre, mais nous nous exprimons toujours avec la meme langue. cela nous permet de ne pas oublier l histoire, les chants, les noms des lieux, etc. je pense que par culture, il ne faut pas entendre nostalgie. la culture, c est vivant. avant, il y avait des rituels pour pecher, maintenant, il y a le gps ! c est comme ca ! on ne peut pas refuser la modernite, c est l evolution normale de la vie. les mangareviens d aujourd hui ne sont pas ceux d hier. 32 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
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