Tahiti - Local Sports for Bastille Day
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sat 28 Aug 2010 05:22
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Quite a bit goes on in Tahiti during the month of July. A
lot of it is aimed at Bastille Day, being French. However, the biggest
event is the Polynesian dancing and singing competitions which take place
throughout the month. It is known as the Heiva and dance groups and singing
groups compete in the main open air theatre in Papeete. The dancing
is spectacular - each dance is choreographed to tell a story and
lasts 20 minutes or more with up to 140 dances on stage. The dancers
are all in Polynesian costumes (grass skits and the like) and
there's a great deal of colour and vibrancy. We went along for 2 nights, but
unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures, so the following are the
local sports that did take place around Bastille Day. Racing outrigger canoes is
still big here and we saw a lot of practicing. They vary in size
from one-man up to 14-man canoes. Women and juniors also have their events.
 The big day - racing along the waterfront in
Papeete.
The local Polynesian games also took place on Bastille Day. It
included weight-lifting Polynesian style, climbing coconut trees, copra
processing (shelling coconuts) and javelin throwing.
 Weight-lifting - picking up huge stones to
shoulder height.
 Coconut processing - one strips the outer husk and
2 crack the nuts open to get the white flesh out.
There are several teams all with the same number
of coconuts to process, the winning team being
the
one finishing first.
 Coconut tree climbing - the girls first
......
 ...... then the
guys
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