Noumea, New Caledonia-Pacific Arts Festival, 2000

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold
Noumea, Port de France. A historic harbor and vessels large and small come here from across the seas. The town spreads out around the harbor so that in Noumea you are never more than a short walk from the quay.

For the whole summer of 2000 word of the Pacific Arts Festival spread from cruiser to cruiser all across the Pacific and they flocked to Noumea. By October over 300 yachts were anchored in Noumea's three main bays. The marinas were full.

Noumea-Port de France

wingssail images: Fredrick Roswold

Noumea, New Caledonia, is one of the Pacific Region's oldest towns, and was once known as Port de France. It was imperial France's main base in the South Pacific.

Today Noumea retains it's French cultural heritage and it's maritime foundation. Historic buildings date from the mid 1800's

Heading Ashore to the Festival

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

We spent all day everyday ashore at the various festival venues in Noumea. Each morning we headed off with a schedule in hand to see the special, recommended, or rare acts which we heard about from our friends and we came home late at night every night, tired and sunburned, but happy, and after two weeks of the Pacific Arts Festival of 2000 we still wanted more.

Pacific Islanders

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

When we hit the beach we found the activies already starting, with representative arrivals of ocean going canoes and these local canoists plying the waters of Noumea's harbors.

Pacific Arts Festival, Noumea, 2000

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

Portraying the migrations across the vast distances of the Pacific Ocean that originally brought the island peoples to their island homes, and then again, on their the travels to New Calidonia for this festival, the dancers marched over these blue waves in the opening procession.

Opening Night Ceremony

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Delegations from Across The Seas

This was a moving ceremony, we were actually stunned by the beauty of it.

New Caledonia Beach Crowd

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Media on the Beach

To open the festival a beach landing of several island dance groups was staged.

The media was present in numbers.

Beach Dancers

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The first performance

These kids had come a long way to dance and you couldn't hold them back. An impromptu performance on the beach was thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd.

Festival Village

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Arrival

After the beach scene the crowd made their way to the festival village for a symbolic entrance.

Festival Village

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Twenty Two Island Countries

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Flags

The flags of 22 island countries were flying as well as those of the hosts and sponsors.

Setting up

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Lights

The whole city of Noumea mobilized for this festival and everywhere w esaw preparations

Pacific Island Girl

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

Waves of peoples swept across the Pacific from West to East, settling the islands as they came to them: Polynesian people, Melanesian, Micronesian. All beautiful, and all very much a big part of why we love the Pacific Islands.

Colorful Dancers

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

Different island countries brought a grand variety of costumes and dance styles. These dancers from Tuvalau were among the most colorful.

Crowd Watching

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

Watching the crowd was part of the fun. On this tiny french island in the South Pacific visitors from around the world gathered for a "once in a lifetime" opportunity.

There weren't a lot of us there, but for those of who were there, it was something special

Fiji

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Beauty and Grace

Audience

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Peer Review

The delegations from all the participating countries joined the audience whenever they could, both to enjoy the show and to critique the competition

Fiji Badge of Courage

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Anyone who thinks that a boar is just a pig has never met one in the wild. Just look at how sharp these tusks are! I think that I understand why so many South Pacific cultures beleive that wearing these shows some courage and manhood.

New Zealand

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In a culture where tatoos are common, this Maori is unusual, but even without tatoos, he looks fearsome. The Maori dances were all about intimidation.

Papua New Guinea

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From a country with close ties to their prehistoric cultures, the Papuans were stunning in their natural costumes and the intensity, even ferocity, of their performances.

From The Highlands of Papua

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

South Pacific Man

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Elder

A timless profile of the polynesian, aged but ageless

Color

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Dancers of all age and brilliant colors captivated us

Papua New Guinea

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Papuans With Drums

Amazing dancers and amazing native dress

Dancer

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Hawaii

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Not the Hula they do for tourists.

Guam

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The male dancers from Guam wait for their turn to perfrom

Samoa

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Samoan

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Tatoo's are part of the culture in the South Pacific. Notice the legs on this warrior

Dancers from Rapa Nui-Easter Island

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Grass Skirt

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Rapa Nui Sweetheart

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By the end of the festival we all had fallen in love with the pretty Rapa Nui girls.

Rapa Nui

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Rapa Nue

The came from Easter Island, the most isolated spot in the South Pacific, and their mix of South American, Polynesian, and European blood gave them distintive and handsome features

New Caledonia

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Tjibaou Cultural Center

We visited this stunning cultural center/museum to watch the Tahitian Dancers in the open air theater, but before the show we toured all the exhibits

Tahitian Extravagansa

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We attended only one performance in a theatical setting; most were on the lawns and small stages around Noumea, but the Tahitian Dancers put on a great show at the main outdoor stage at the Tjibaou Cultural Center. We sat on the grass on a natural amphitheater and they captivated us far into the night.

Pacific Arts Festival

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Passage to Australia

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Wings in New Cal

Ed & Lynne & Friend

Underway to Australia at last

Judy on Watch

Arrival off Bundaberg

Wings in Bundaberg, Australia

Bougainvilla in Noumea

Pacific Arts Festival, Noumea, 2000

wingssail image: Fredrick Roswold

Warrior's owners in South Pacific 2000

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Sandy & Lloyd Banta

This couple and their children were having the time of their lives sailing Warrior around the South Pacific

Warrior (more recent photo)

Warrior, Brit Chance 50, and old friend from Seattle racing memories. This is a more recent photo.

Boy, the tales of many lives this boat could tell: built in Europe, raced in SORC, raced in California, raced in Portland, Seattle (won everything for a few years), burned badly in a boatyard accident and written off by insurance, rebuilt, converted to cruiser, sailed to South Pacific, etc etc.

There is surely more to this story but I don't know much of it. The boat got back to California, new owners, Michelle and Robin, rebuilt again, sailed to Mexico, Panama, Galapagos, Easter Island, Pitcairn Island...

http://warrior.languagenook.com/history.htm

And then, what? Where is it now?

New Caledonia

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DANGER!

We bushwacked around some islands and saw a few of these fellows. But when we got back to the boat my arm started to hurt and swell up. It got as big as a football and it was over a week before it went down. So I guess these guys are poisonous.

Baie de Vincent

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Wings

We went ashore and climbed around, got lost, got into some sticker bushes, got a spider bite, then found our way back to the beach.

Julie & Judy

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Noumea

We spent a lot of time with Ed and Julie from Cinnabar walking around town and finding restraunts. One strange thing: The French wines we found in Noumea were uniformly bad. And even the red wine was chilled to nearly ice cold.

New Cal Windsurfer Boy

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The French expatriates who live in New Calidonia or visit here for holidays are serious about their recreation. We found windsurfers and kitesurfers and water skiers and wakeboarders. We also found topless beaches. (Sorry, I didn't get any photos)