What is it like to live and work in the Marquesas Islands?
It is a challenge that feeds the soul.
Since my very first visit at age 19, the islands have been a rich source of inspiration, discovery and joy.
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It’s no accident that Herman Melville featured the Marquesas in his first novel, Typee, or that they became home to both Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel late in life. Their stunning beauty, remoteness and exceptional biodiversity are captivating. Perhaps most importantly, their talented and dynamic inhabitants have a long tradition of welcoming foreigners (even despite the traumatic and ongoing effects of colonialism). For Marquesans, the past is more than a heritage. It is the source of both their strength and their pain, the accomplishments of their ancestors and the fundamental, life-giving root (tumu) of who they are.
How could I not write about it?
Featured Writing on the Marquesas
“The year before I miscarried on a small island in Maine, I was living on another small island a half-world away…”
Branches
In 2023 some of my writing on the Marquesas was selected for inclusion in Rooted2: The Best New Arboreal Nonfiction (edited by Josh Macivor-Andersen, Outpost19).
You can read an earlier version of this piece, entitled “Branches,” as it was published in an issue of the Plant-Human Quarterly in 2022. It explores some of the spiritual and personal challenges of working in forest places where ancestral spirits are said to dwell.
“High in the mountains of the Marquesas Islands, the wind blows fresh and sharp…”
War Clubs and Power
I wrote this piece for PBS’s Roadshow, which was featuring a Marquesan war club, or u’u. The article traces the history, symbolism and cultural significance of the u’u across the centuries, from utilitarian instrument of war to a piece of art coveted by foreign travelers.
This photo shows two war clubs, both reproductions carved by modern Marquesan artisans (the one hanging horizontally is styled after the historic u’u). When I took the photo in 2013, it was prominently displayed in the office of one of the most important people in the Marquesas, the mayor of Nuku Hiva.
“I collect my bag from the one-room Hiva Oa airport and catch a ride down the single island road, ears popping, past banana plantations and grazing horses…”
My South Pacific Home Away from Home
I wrote this piece for the McGill Reporter immediately after returning from my doctoral fieldwork. It offers a small taste of what it is like to be part of a local family, including sharing their food, tiny homes, and outhouses for months on end. Though it focuses on my adoptive family in Vaitahu, Tahuata, it also reflects the kinds of experiences I had throughout the islands in 2013, when I spent time living with 14 different families across all six inhabited Marquesan islands.
This photo shows one of my adoptive sisters, Christina Timau, and our niece, Teani, at a dance contest in Vaitahu in 2014.
Hungry for more?
Check out my book (University of Washington Press). I wrote it for a non-academic audience, so it’s dense in ideas but not jargon!
