The population of Tahiti and her islands

The most recent population census found a total of about 200,000 people in French Polynesia. However the criteria used for defining the racial groups can only approximate a breakdown of: 70% Polynesian, 12% European, 10% Polynesian/European, five per-cent Chinese, and three percent Polynesian/Chinese. All are French citizens.

Ia Orana, Maeva, and Manava are the three words for “greetings and welcome” that the French Polynesians wish their visitors. This welcoming, which is all part of the legendary Tahitian hospitality, is expressed at arrival time in songs accompanied on the guitar and ukulele, sung by a cheerful group and together with the gift of the tiare, the national Tahitian flower, with a very subtle perfume. Eagerly awaited travellers and friends are swathed in multicoloured flower garlands to celebrate their homecoming or as an expression of the renewal of happy times ahead.
Tahitians are a happy people and proud of their islands. They want to share all their “joie de vivre” with their guests. It is the same too with their natural gift for dance, all kinds of dances, starting with their very own ones. And the music which they express in polyphonic group singing and in sacred church music as well as in the percussion rhythms of the pahu and toere, traditional instruments, and in the guitar and ukulele harmonies of their “kaina” bands... And its the same for their passion for the sea and fishing, surfing and the practice of canoeing in the ancestral style which has become the royal sport for the whole of the archipelago. All the visitor needs to do is to agree to receive and allow himself to be taken over.

One single keyword: mauruuru. Thank you!