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Tahuata (Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia)

Flag of Tahuata - Image by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 24 December 2008

Presentation of Tahuata
Flag of Tahuata
Kingdom of Tahuata (c. 1837-1842)

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Presentation of Tahuata

Quoting the website of the Presidency of French Polynesia (page no longer online):

The island of Tahuata is located at 9º56'S and 139º06'W. It is separated from Hiva Oa by a 3-kilometer wide sound known as the Bordelais Channel.
The island has an area of 61 square kilometers and is shaped like a crescent 15 kilometers long. A ridgeline running north to south reaches a maximum height of 1,050 meters. A crater rim with steep slopes that go all the way to the coast, forming high cliffs at the ends of buttress-like spurs above white sand beach bays that form an indented coastline. Tahuata is the only island in the Marquesas with coral formations.
Today, the entire island is one municipality with a population of 637 (1996 census) divided among four villages: Vaitahu, Hapatoni, Motopu and Hanatetena. Agriculture is the island's main richness, long after coffee disappeared in the valleys around 1980.

Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana arrived at Vaitahu in 1595, but the islanders' first contact with a European was bloody as Spanish soldiers massacred 200 persons in the village. The behavior of the westerners who arrived between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of 19th century incited a violent hostility among the islanders. The first Christianization attempts among the islanders by Protestants in 1797 and Catholics in 1839 failed. The Polynesian chief Iotete organized a fierce resistance in 1842 when a French expedition led by Dupetit-Thouars tried to take control of Tahuata.

Ivan Sache, 20 August 2005

Flag of Tahuata

The unofficial flag of Tahuata, seen at the headquarters of theTahitian Football Federation and used during the Games of the Marquesas Islands 2006, is green with a white frame and the name of the island in white letters in the middle.

Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 24 December 2008

Kingdom of Tahuata (c. 1837-1842)

Flags of the Kingdom of Tahuata (left and of King Iotete (right) - Images by Ivan Sache, 20 August 2005

The Polynesian chief Iotete organized a fierce resistance in 1842 when a French expedition led by Dupetit-Thouars tried to take control of Tahuata.
The Flags of Paradise chart [brt96] shows the flag of the Kingdom of Tahuata, c. 1837-1842 as a square flag made of 4 x 4 squares, alternately red and white, and King Iotete's flag as a rectangular flag of the same design.

Ivan Sache, 20 August 2005