AdventuresAboardAvatar: Artisans of Hanavave & Mike's Birthday

We made many friends in Hanavave. The people here have all treated us like family, inviting us into their homes and feeding us. The majority of folks here either carve wood or stone, make tapa (paper made from the pounding of tree bark), or paint the tapa. As we walked around the village we could hear the chink, chink, chink of the carvers, the whirring of the dremel tools and sanders, or the pounding of the stones flattening the tapa.

On the way up the valley to visit one couple, we stopped by the cemetery to check out the view.

One of the things we have learned is that all people are buried whole bodies. There are no crematoriums in French Polynesia. If you want to be cremated, they have to ship the body to NZ and then send the ashes back. And with all the hard rock here, most bodies are buried above ground.

But always the cemeteries are located at the top of a hill with a good view.

We stopped by a house to see what it is that they have growing in their yard. It is Orchids. They use palm tree trunks as stools to keep it off the ground and then put dirt in a coconut husk to provide nourishment for the plants.

Another thing we noticed here is that all the animals get along without chasing each other. Can you believe those cats are not after that chicken?!?

The dirt road going up to Desire' and Jacques' house.

These are exotic woods cut from local trees which will be used for carving. Several of those tree trunks are Rosewood and come from deep with in the island of Fatu Hiva

When we arrived at the house, Jaques' was sanding a fairly large tiki.

He has a workshop outside the house and other than sanding, he does all the detail work by hand with a chisel. No Dremel tools here!

This tiki is starting to take shape. I love how he has white butt cheeks. This tiki will be taken to Tahiti to an art show in November. They hope to sell several pieces of art, so they can afford a new outboard motor for their boat.

Every house has lots of animals. They have a baby pig here along with several puppies. This little guy is thinking, “he does not look like me, but he does have white on his nose too.”

The little piggie has been mushed coconut to get a white nose. Funny how he is the same size as the puppies.

The three puppies are saying, “ that one pup smells different, don't you think?”

Their big black dog is named “Lucky”, kind of a coincidence, us having had a big black Lucky dog back in Mexico. The one puppy was hoping to make friends with him, but he is not their daddy.

The pig doesn't chase the chickens either, but they do give him room to eat.

It was October 3^rd, Mike's birthday and our first first anniversary (when we married in Hawaii)(second first anniversary will be Dec. 22). He wanted this tapa made by Desire' for his birthday present. She told us it was from a lady she met from NZ who was a Mauori that inspired her drawing.

This tapa was hanging on the wall in her house. I love it because it has all of the Marquesas Islands in the body of the turtle. She knew I liked it and offered to give it to me. I wanted to refuse, but she wanted me to have it. So we agreed on a trade. We brought them a new bow line for their boat in exchange. It is very difficult for them to get boat equipment out here. It is much older and was done by a friend of hers.

This dancer was also hanging in their living room. I think made by the same friend.

As my anniversary present, I wanted this tapa which we bought from Christian. It is of the original drawings of a Marquesan man, similar to the one made famous by Captain Cook's illustrator from the 1700's.

These are some of the other art pieces by Christian and his wife.

He also has two puppies in his yard, but because he lives down in the middle of the village, he keeps them tied up.

On the road down the hill from the cemetery, we met this couple working away in their shop, Simon and Cici.

Simon shows us how he laminates the different types of wood together to make a beautiful paddle.

Then Cici uses the Dremel tool with exceptional skill and carves ancient Marquesan symbols into it.

Here is a blank stone, ready for Simon to carve.

Here are some of the stone tikis that are only partially finished. We had seen him carving a large piece by hand a few days before, and he told us he has a large piece on display in Tahiti. We did not have money enough to buy from all of them, but they were all very sweet and courteous to us none the less. And we got by with my very basic poor French for conversation!!

This is a huge tree on that same dirt road.

Back in the village we met a man and his son, Mark and Cedric, who make very small detailed pieces for necklaces and charms. The white ones are made of bone, the brown ones of mother of pearl, and the pink ones from this type of shell. I would have loved to have a carved piece of shell (being Shelly and all), but they were super expensive. He said it is because the shell is hardest of all and takes the longest to make. So I bought one of the bone paddles.

This is our good friend, Poi. He spoke quite good English. His art was some of our favorites. Mike also got this Maui fishing hook for his birthday.

Here is a close up of it standing up. Made with Ironwood and pig's tusk.

This piece is the coup-de-grau. It is a Marquesan war club made from Iornwood and a carved swordfish sword.

This is the detail of the head. We hemmed and hawed over this piece as Mike wanted it for decorating the house back in La Paz. We finally agreed on a price and decided it will be our Christmas present to ourselves. We waited to buy most of our art work until we got back here, not buying any when we were in Tahiti. This way we get to meet the artists themselves and know that they are getting all the money we pay for it. It is an exquisite piece.