Paper short abstract:

This paper historically and ethnographically traces how the Indigenous Māòhi people of French Polynesia transformed mainline Protestantism, a complicit agent in the islands’ colonisation process, into their contemporary identity marker and a tool for fighting colonial injustices.

Paper long abstract:

This paper highlights the role of local mainline Protestantism in French Polynesia as an effective Indigenous identity marker, and by extension, a political medium to tackle a variety of social challenges caused by the long colonial history. Christianity has been first introduced to the region by the London Missionary Society, drastically transforming the socio-political orders of the traditional chieftainship in the early 19th century. Whether the conversion was willing or imposed at the time, becoming Christians and its accompanying cultural contacts consequentially led to the colonisation of the islands. Whilst the territory of French Polynesia remains practically a French colony, the church became an independent, Indigenous-led congregation in 1963. This allowed the Indigenous people to transform the religion into a space where Indigeneity is celebrated, and colonial ramifications are discussed and challenged.

I analyse what historical, social, and cultural factors contributed to the reconstruction of local Christianity as a distinctively Indigenous marker in French Polynesia. Specifically, I examine the remainder of traditional chieftainship in the church community structure, the marriage between Indigenous cultural renaissance and Protestant theology, and the place of Christian faith in contrast to the increasingly secular France. In doing so, I ask to what extent this case study is transferrable in the South Pacific region, where the islanders underwent similar historical trajectories but now find themselves in different political situations. As the former Imperial nations increasingly secularise, can Christianity be a tool for Pacific Islanders to 1) reconstruct the contemporary Island identities, and 2) build up the resistance against (neo)colonialism?