Le Retour des Trésors Polynésiens

FIFO Screening
(The Return of Polynesia’s Treasures)

Thursday, October 24, 2024
5:30 pm – 8 pm
Location: Atherton Hālau

FREE with registration

Join us in a celebration of the premiere of Le Retour des Trésors Polynésiens (The Return of Polynesia’s Treasures), presented by the Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien (FIFO). Le Retour des Trésors Polynésiens is a 2025 entry to FIFO, an annual film festival held on the island of Tahiti. This is the second year of FIFO in Hawaiʻi, brought by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies (CPIS) and UH Mānoa.

The 52-minute documentary (French with English subtitles), produced by Archipel Production and directed by Denis Pinson, tells the moving story of the reclaiming of Polynesian heritage and identity, symbolized by the return of emblematic works of art to Polynesian soil after a long exile. Viewers will discover the fascinating journey of these sacred objects as they finally find their rightful place in Te Fare Iamanaha, the Museum of Tahiti and the Islands.

The screening will be followed by a discussion featuring FIFO President Miriama Bono, artist and kapa maker, Hinatea Colombani, Healoha Johnston, Bishop Museum Curator for Hawai’i and Pacific Arts and Culture and Kamalu du Preez, Bishop Museum Culture Resource Specialist.

Doors open at 5:00 pm; program begins at 5:30 pm.

Miriama Bono is a Polynesian artist, independent curator, and architect. She was the General Delegate of FIFO, the International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival, from 2010 to 2014, and then became the association’s President in 2015. She thus has significant expertise in the audiovisual world across the region.In 2017, she was appointed Director of the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles and took charge of renovating the museum, overseeing the building work, and coordinating the international cooperation projects that will lead to the return to Polynesia in 2023 of 20 major pieces of Polynesian heritage from the collections of the British Museum, the Cambridge Museum of Anthropology and the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac. She now lectures at universities, writes articles and curates contemporary Polynesian art, and remains deeply involved in Tahitian culture.

From ‘ori Tahiti to the Polynesian world. It was through dance that Hinatea Colombani took her first steps into Polynesian culture. In 2008, she set up her own dance school before extending her teaching to other Polynesian arts. Along with dance, there are songs, percussion instruments, costumes, history … A whole culture that she wants to share, disseminate and pass on. The ‘ARIOI Cultural Centre was created in 2016, here she welcomes her students as well as locals for immersive days out.

But be warned: this is a family environment. In the garden, aute, paper mulberry trees grow everywhere. Hinatea and Moeava, her partner, fall in love with tapa (kapa) a decade from now.

They have been interested in working with this plant-based fabric, perfecting their skills through books, observation and, above all, experimentation. Now, they want to launch this new artistic and co-cultural trend: tapanism. Being a tapanist means doing everything from A to Z: planting, harvesting, making tools, beating the bark, preparing natural dyes, painting on the tapa, and, above all, pursuing research, whether literary or experimental. Today, the tapa is no longer just a beautiful museum piece that is treasured from the past; it has become a contemporary work of art that tells the story of Polynesians today.

Hinatea is recognized by the Traditional Crafts Department as a master tapa-maker. She likes to say that tapa is the red thread, an element that has always been there to link not only Oceania, but also the generations of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.