FIFO film premiere and special guests at UH West O‘ahu, Oct. 22

The University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu will host a special event to celebrate the premiere of “Le Retour des Trésors Polynésiens,” or “The Return of Polynesia’s Treasures,” a film presentation by the Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien (FIFO). The event will be on Tuesday, Oct. 22, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m at the UH West Oʻahu Academy for Creative Media.

The 52-minute documentary (French with English subtitles), produced by Archipel Production and directed by Denis Pinson, tells the moving story of the reclaiming of Polynesian heritage and identity, symbolized by the return of emblematic works of art to Polynesian soil after a long exile. Viewers will discover the fascinating journey of these sacred objects as they finally find their rightful place in the Fare Iamanaha – Museum of Tahiti and the Islands.

“The Return of Polynesia’s Treasures” is a 2025 entry to FIFO (which translates in English to International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival), an annual film festival held on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. This is the second year of FIFO in Hawai‘i, brought by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies (CPIS) and UH Mānoa.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guest speakers Miriama Bono, president of FIFO, former director of the French Polynesia Museum, architect, and painter; and Hinatea Colombani, artist and kapa maker.

The tentative event program will be as follows:

• 9:15 a.m.: Showcase of Pacific Islander artists
• 10 a.m.: Screening of documentary in ACM Theatre, followed by Q&A with Miriama Bono and Hinatea Colombani
• 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Launa on patio with light lunch

Seating for the 10 a.m. screening and the Q&A to follow is limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis; RSVP at https://go.hawaii.edu/39a. The 9:15 a.m. showcase and 11:30 a.m. light lunch are open to all. More event details will be forthcoming.

About Miriama Bono:

Miriama Bono is a Polynesian artist, independent curator, and architect. She was the General Delegate of FIFO, the International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival, from 2010 to 2014, and then became the association’s President in 2015. She thus has significant expertise in the audiovisual world across the region.

In 2017, she was appointed Director of the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles and took charge of renovating the museum, overseeing the building work, and coordinating the international cooperation projects that will lead to the return to Polynesia in 2023 of 20 major pieces of Polynesian heritage from the collections of the British Museum, the Cambridge Museum of Anthropology and the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac.

She now lectures at universities, writes articles and curates contemporary Polynesian art, and remains deeply involved in Tahitian culture.

About Hinatea Colombani:

From ‘ori Tahiti to the Polynesian world. It was through dance that Hinatea Colombani took her first steps into Polynesian culture. In 2008, she set up her own dance school before extending her teaching to other Polynesian arts. Along with dance, there are songs, percussion instruments, costumes, history … A whole culture that she wants to share, disseminate and pass on. The ‘ARIOI Cultural Centre was created in 2016, here she welcomes her students as well as locals for immersive days out.

But be warned: this is a family environment. In the garden, aute, paper mulberry trees grow everywhere. Hinatea and Moeava, her partner, fall in love with tapa (kapa) a decade from now.
They have been interested in working with this plant-based fabric, perfecting their skills through books, observation and, above all, experimentation. Now, they want to launch this new artistic and co-cultural trend: tapanism.

Being a tapanist means doing everything from A to Z: planting, harvesting, making tools, beating the bark, preparing natural dyes, painting on the tapa, and, above all, pursuing research, whether literary or experimental. Today, the tapa is no longer just a beautiful museum piece that is treasured from the past; it has become a contemporary work of art that tells the story of Polynesians today.

Hinatea is recognized by the Traditional Crafts Department as a master tapa-maker. She likes to say that tapa is the red thread, an element that has always been there to link not only Oceania, but also the generations of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.