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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| April 27, 2005 |
Father of the Tahitian Anti-Nuclear Testing Movement – Gabriel Titiarahi |
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| Dr. Gabriel (Gabi) Titiarahi (photo by Jeff Kennel) |
In 1963, the French government made the decision to move their nuclear testing program to Tahiti. These tests, they claimed, would bring the Tahitian people peace, prosperity, and jobs. Because of this promise, the people warmly welcomed the 25,000 French troops that arrived over the next three years. Gabriel Titiarahi, or “Gabi” as he prefers to be called, was ten years old when he first saw the mushroom cloud of a nuclear test on the horizon. “I did not understand what was happening,” Gabi explained to Peace Boat participants during his time onboard, “but I saw the mushroom coming from Hiva*. I had never seen anything as beautiful, with all the colors of the rainbow. I have never since seen anything as beautiful as that.” |
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| One group of Peace Boat participants had the opportunity to spend two days with Gabi at his NGO, Hita Tau. |
In 1975, Gabi left Tahiti to pursue advanced study in France and there, for the first time, learned about the terrible effects of nuclear weapons, both on humans and the natural environment. Only a month prior, the French government had decided to do away with above-ground nuclear tests and moved all tests underground, something that deeply horrified Gabi. “Underground, for us, our mother is the earth. The mother is under the sea...what France did was to put nuclear testing into our mother, which is a crime.”
At that time, Gabi began to demonstrate against nuclear testing... alone. For many years, he stood alone on the street in France, holding a single banner protesting the actions of the French government. He returned to Tahiti briefly in 1978 with materials he had obtained from Japan that outlined the effects of nuclear weapons and radiation on humans, but was unsuccessful in his efforts to educate the public. Surprisingly, this was due to difficulty in getting support from the Tahitians themselves. The French system of promotion of nuclear activities was so strong that it was very difficult for Gabi to counter that with the sparse information he had access to. Upon returning to France, Gabi continued his solitary demonstrations, and after several years finally began to receive attention from the press. In 1985, Gabi became the first indigenous Tahitian to be awarded a PhD and when he returned to Tahiti for good, people expected him to take a seat in the Tahitian parliament. His response to them was a resounding “no”. |
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| Gabi’s lectures onboard Peace Boat were very popular with participants. |
“The work I have to provide for my country and my people is to make my country free of nuclear colonization, free of nuclear terrorism, free of nuclear racism,” he told them. “I will organize organizations to insure that nuclear testing stops in my country and that my country will be independent one day.” It was at this point that his protest movement finally took off. From 1985 to 1991, he was invited by various groups from Tahiti, as well as other islands in the Pacific, to come and talk about nuclear testing, human rights, indigenous people’s rights, and development projects. In 1992, Gabi founded Hiti Tau, an NGO in Tahiti working to promote human rights, sustainable development and the end of nuclear testing in the Pacific.
During this time, nuclear testing became an internationally well-known issue and people in other countries became more and more aware of what was happening in Tahiti. To address the nuclear testing problem, as well as other common issues, the Pacific Island Organization of NGOs was founded and worked toward stopping France and other countries’ violation of the human rights of the indigenous people of the area. The Tahitian people enjoyed a brief period of respite from nuclear testing in the period between 1991 and 1995, but when Jacques Chirac was elected president of France in 1995, one of his first actions as president was to resume France’s nuclear testing program. |
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| Gabi at Hita Tau’s taro plantation. |
“We were sure that that would be his first decision,” Gabi explained. “In 1995, just before he decided, we brought all those NGOs to Tahiti and had a big meeting to speak about strategies for when nuclear testing was resumed. We prepared more than 200 local leaders ready to go outside (of Tahiti) to talk about the impact of nuclear testing all over the world. We picked up nuclear testing survivors to give talks on their experiences. We prepared local groups to protest on the road when the decision was made. And the most important thing for us was that we organized a Peace Village in the middle of Papeete, which we occupied without permission.” The Peace Village was a central location for the protest and every night, 800-1200 Tahitians slept there as a showing of solidarity and support.
In addition to these local efforts, leaders of the movement looked to the outside and lobbied for support from world leaders and other influential people, including the United Nations, the Danish Prime Minister, Nelson Mandela, and the Dali Lama. On the 28th of August, 1995, they received a fax from the United Nations Human Rights Commission stating that it had been decided that the French nuclear testing was an act of racial discrimination against indigenous people. Despite this popular support for the cessation of nuclear testing in Tahiti, France temporarily resumed its program on December 1st, 1995 with a detonation on the island of Mururoa. Finally, in 1997 when the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was opened for signatures, the age of nuclear testing in Tahiti came to an end. |
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| Nuclear testing may have stopped, but the extent of the effects the tests have had on these picturesque islands are yet to be seen. |
While this was a significant accomplishment for Gabi, Hita Tau, and the people of Tahiti, there are still many problems that must be dealt with. The extent of the damage the tests have had on the land and ocean are not completely known, and under French law, the information they have collected is classified for sixty years. Already, residents of areas nearby the nuclear testing sites have begun to show signs of serious health problems, and the incidence of cancer is steadily increasing. In addition, there is a growing political discontent among the people of Tahiti, who often resent French control of their island. Gabi is at the forefront of the Tahitian movement for further autonomy and possibly independence. “For me, our future is freedom, independence for our kids and their future lives. Not to be a colony of France, but free,” Gabi responded when asked about his vision of the future. “We want to be citizens of our own country, like you all are.”
*Hiva is the Pacific Ocean in the Tahitian indigenous language. |
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