Tamaeva V

Tamaeva V
Queen of Rimatara
Queen Tamaeva V (far right), 1905
Reign 1892–1901
Predecessor Tamaeva IV
Born c. 1830
Died 1923
Burial Royal Sepulchre, Amaru Cemetery
Father Tamaeva II
Religion Protestantism

Tamaeva V or Temaeva V,[lower-alpha 1] formally Heimataura Tamatoa Tamaeva V (c. 1830–1923), was the Arii vahine no Rimatara[3] or queen of the island kingdom of Rimatara from 1892 to 1901. Her reign came to an end with the formal annexation of Rimatara (the independent Austral Islands) to France. She was responsible for saving the Rimatara lorikeet (Vini kuhlii) from extinction during the early 20th century.

Early life

Born on the Polynesian island of Rimatara, Heimataura was the daughter of King Tamaeva II, Ari'i of Rimatara.[2] She lived in a world influenced by the changes brought on by the westernization of the island. Rimatara had been the last of the Austral Islands to be discovered by Western explorers in 1811. Protestantism was introduced by Tahitian missionaries from the Society Islands and become the dominant religion on the island.[4][5] A church at the capital of Amaru, constructed in 1857 and renovated in 1892, housed the entire island's population of 300 people under its roof.[6] The small kingdom fashioned its own sovereign flag by 1856.[7] The first law code was introduced in 1877.[8]

Rule as regent

The young queen Tamaeva IV, the regent, group of chiefs and inhabitants of Rimatara, c. 1889

Rimatara, along with its neighbor Rurutu, were unique because they remained independent while the other Austral Islands and even Tahiti to the north fell to the French colonial empire.[4][9][10] Her father died in 1865. It is assumed that a brother or a male relative succeeded to the throne as Tamaeva III followed by his daughter Queen Tamaeva IV.[11] Heimataura served as regent for the teenage Tamaeva IV. Foreign travelers including French Protestant missionary Frédéric Vernier of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society recorded the existence of an adolescent queen and a queen regent in 1892.[6][12]

Rimatara and Rurutu attempted in vain to request a British protectorate to hold off French colonial aggression the annexation of Tahiti in 1880. The French responded immediately to what they presumed to be a threat to their interests in the Pacific. On 29 March 1889, the French warship Dives landed on Rimatara with the colonial governor of French Oceania, Étienne Théodore Lacascade, on board, and he had Rimatara and its dependency Îles Maria declared a French protectorate.[13][14][15] The French version of the story was that the queen, regent and chiefs had personally petitioned Governor Lacascade to take over the islands, but British sources believed the whole affair to be largely contrary to the desire of the majority of the islanders.[16] The protectorate treaty was signed by Lascarde and five French officials and countersigned by the queen, Heimataura and seven other chiefs or councilors.[14][17] As a sign of the newly declared protectorate, the French tricolor was added to the canton of the kingdom's flag in 1891.[10][7]

Reign

After the early death of Tamaeva IV on 12 November 1892, she succeeded to as Queen of Rimatara in her right as Tamaeva V.[3][11] Under the French protectorate, she was allowed to reign with much of the intact native government and laws of the past.[13]

In 1900, the neighboring King Teuruarii IV of Rurutu had his kingdom formally annexed to France in order to bring it closer economically to the colonial seat of Papeete.[18] Tamaeva, the last independent monarch in the Austral Islands, ceded Rimatara to France the following year, in a declaration dated to 6 June 1901. On 2 September 1901, Rimatara was formally annexed to France in a ceremony officiated by Governor Édouard Georges Théophile Petit. The Queen was represented by her three children: Narii, Tairiata, and Tamatoa. At the end of the transfer, the flag of the protectorate was replaced by the French tricolor with cries of "Vive la République Française" from the populace.[13][1][19] The island was incorporated into the territory of French Oceania, today part of the overseas country of French Polynesia.[17]

Tamaeva V died in 1923.[11] Her remains were interred in the Royal Sepulchre at the Cemetery of Amaru, outside the settlement facing the sea; she was laid to rest beside other members of the Tamaeva royal line.[2][20]

Saving the Rimatara lorikeet

The Rimatara lorikeet or Kuhl's lorikeet. Lithograph by Edward Lear

According to local tradition, the Rimatara lorikeet (Vini kuhlii; also known as the Kura or Kuhl's lorikeet) was saved from extinction by a royal declaration issued by Queen Tamaeva V in 1900. The species was endemic to the southern Cook Islands and Rimatara but had been decimated in the former group after the introduction of the black rat and overhunting by local people. She declared a tapu or taboo which forbade any Rimataran from exporting, exploiting, or harming the bird.[21][22][23]

In 2007 a population was reintroduced to the black-rat-free island of Atiu in the Cook Islands by BirdLife International, the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust and numerous conservation bodies, including the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. In 2008, the introduced population was found to be reproducing.[21][22][23]

Notes

  1. ↑ French sources refer to her as Temaeva while her tombstone in Rimatara gives her name as Tamaeva.[1][2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Procès-verbal de Prise de Possession de l'Ile Rimtara et Dépendance (Ilots Maria) par la France". Annuaire des Êtablissements français de l'Océanie pour 1904. Papeete: Imp. du gouvenement. 1904. pp. 79–80. OCLC 42615454.
  2. 1 2 3 "Sépultures royales des Arii Tamaeva". Tahiti Heritage. Archived from the original on 2017-04-01. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  3. 1 2 Biddle, George (1999). Tahitian Journal. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 153–155. ISBN 978-0-8166-0496-8. OCLC 897001829.
  4. 1 2 Knowles, Sir James (1886). The Nineteenth Century. London: Henry S. King & Company. p. 747. OCLC 1780286.
  5. ↑ Blond, Becca; Brash, Celeste; Rogers, Hilary (2006). Tahiti & French Polynesia. Ediz. Inglese. Footscray, Victoria; London: Lonely Planet. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-74059-998-6. OCLC 144564475.
  6. 1 2 Cousins, George, ed. (1892). The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society. I. London: London Missionary Society. pp. 152, 268. OCLC 269250730.
  7. 1 2 "Drapeau de Rimatara". Tahiti Heritage. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  8. ↑ Gonschor, Lorenz Rudolf (August 2008). Law as a Tool of Oppression and Liberation: Institutional Histories and Perspectives on Political Independence in Hawaiʻi, Tahiti Nui/French Polynesia and Rapa Nui. Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa. pp. 53–54. hdl:10125/20375.
  9. ↑ Gonschor 2008, pp. 38–39.
  10. 1 2 Sache, Ivan (21 March 2009). "Rimatara (Austral Islands, French Polynesia)". Flags of the World. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 Cahoon, Ben (2000). "French Polynesia". WorldStatesman.org. Worldstatesman organization. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Anderson, Gerald H. (1999). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-4680-8. OCLC 494483946.
  13. 1 2 3 Gonschor 2008, pp. 54–56.
  14. 1 2 "Procès-verbal de l'établissement du Protectorat de la France sur l'île Rimatara et dépendances". Annuaire des établissements français de l'Océanie pour 1892. Papeete: Imp. du gouvenement. 1892. pp. 111–112, 207–208. OCLC 80559531.
  15. ↑ Trouillet, Jean-Paul (1889). Questions coloniales. Paris: Lanier et ses fils. pp. 345–349. OCLC 361798825.
  16. ↑ "ISLAND NEWS. MORE ANNEXATION. FRENCH PROTECTORATE OVER RURUTU AND RIMATARA". Te Aroha News. VI (370). Te Aroha. 22 May 1889. p. 4. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  17. 1 2 Gonschor 2008, p. 55.
  18. ↑ Vérin, Pierre (1964). "Notes socio-économiques sur l'île de Rurutu (Polynésie Française)". In Institut de science économique appliquée. Cahiers: Humanités, économie, ethnologie, sociologie. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. pp. 99–133. OCLC 10776662.
  19. ↑ "FRANCE IN THE PACIFIC. ANNEXATION OF AN ISLAND". Auckland Star. XXXIII (46). Auckland. 24 February 1902. p. 6. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  20. ↑ "Cimetière de Amaru". Tahiti Heritage. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  21. 1 2 "New Hope for Exotic Parrots on Cook Islands". Offbeat News. 30 September 2007. Archived from the original on 9 August 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  22. 1 2 BirdLife International (27 September 2007). "Saved by one Queen and brought home by another: Rimatara Lorikeet returns to the Cook Islands". BirdLife International. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  23. 1 2 Lieberman, Alan; McCormack, Gerald (November 2008). Joanna Eckles, ed. "An Island Endemic: Kuhl's Lory" (PDF). Psitta Scene – Magazine of the World Parrot Trust. Vol. 20 no. 4. Glanmor House, Hayle, Cornwall: World Parrot Trust. pp. 8–11. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
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