Pouvanaa a Oopa

Pouvanaa a Oopa was born in 1895 in Maeva, on the island of Huahine.[3] His mother was of Polynesian descent while his father was a Danish sailor.[4]

He was a veteran of World War I, serving in the Pacific Battalion of the French army.[3] Pouvanaa also worked as a "fried-potato vendor" and a carpenter.[5]

During World War II, Pouvanaa criticized people who profited financially from the war, and was exiled to a reef islet in his native Huahine in 1942.[3] Following the end of the war and the liberation of France, Pouvanaa continued to criticize French colonial rule in the islands. In 1947 he was prosecuted for "challenging government authority", but acquitted.[3] In October 1947 he founded a political party, the Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People (RDPT),[5] which advocated Tahitian nationalism and an end to French colonial rule.

Pouvanaa was first elected as a deputy in the National Assembly of France in the 1949 French Oceania by-election, following the death of Georges Ahnne,[6] becoming the first French Polynesian to serve in the French Chamber of Deputies.[3] He was further re-elected to the French National Assembly in 1951[7] and 1956.[8]

He became the leader of the local government administration of the islands in 1958.[9] Under the slogan of "Tahiti for the Tahitians; Frenchmen into the sea!", Pouvanaa's RDPT swept local elections.[5] He accused the government of France allowing the local economy to deteriorate.[5] As part of the local government, Pouvanaa and his supporters enacted French Polynesia's first income tax, in order to gain more revenue from the local economy, which was dominated by ethnic French and Chinese businesspeople.[5] A strike by business leaders, and a riot in Papeete, in which the French Polynesian Assembly was pelted with stones, led to the law being repealed.[10]

Pouvanaa was a strong advocate of in favor of independence for French Polynesia during the French Polynesian referendum of 1958, which was part of the wider French constitutional referendum.[11] He campaigned in favor of the 'no' vote against the French constitution and in support of independence from France. However, government officials restricted campaigning by the 'no' side, and in some outlying islands voters were unaware that 'no' was an option.[12] The 'no' vote was defeated in the referendum by a margin of 62–36%,[12] and French Polynesia remained a French territory. However, some local commentators believe 'no' would have won if they had been able to campaign freely.[12]

In 1958 Pouvanaa was charged with arson in Papeete.[12] He was accused of leading unrest and trying to burn down the city.[13] In October 1959 he was found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison and an additional fifteen years of exile in metropolitan France.[14] He was released from prison in 1962.[14] French President Charles de Gaulle pardoned Pouvanaa in 1968 and he returned to French Polynesia in 1969.[11]

The Pouvanaa a Oopa Monument

Pouvanaa campaigned for and was elected to the French Senate, representing French Polynesia, in 1971.[11] He continued to hold this office until his death in 1977.[3]

Pouvanaa died on January 10, 1977, in Tahiti.[3]

In 1982, the Pouvanaa a Oopa Monument was erected in Papeete in front of the Assembly of French Polynesia.[15] The memorial in memory of Pouvanaa became a rallying point for Tahitian during the French nuclear tests of 1995. Nearly one third of the Tahitian adult population gathered at Pouvanaa's memorial in July 1995 to protest against French nuclear detonations in the Tuamotu Archipelago.[16] A street in Papeete, Avenue Pouvanaa A Oopa, is also named in his honor.[17]

Pouvanaa's family requested a new trial in 1988, though their request was denied by the French Justice Department in Paris.[13]

In July 2009, the Assembly of French Polynesia unanimously passed a resolution asking the French government for a new trial for Pouvanaa a Oopa.[13] The call was repeated in 2013.[18] In 2018 his conviction was quashed by the Court of Revision after new evidence showed that French police had fabricated evidence or extracted it by threats of violence, and that the Governor had reported Pouvanaa's arrest before the fires had even been set.[2][19]