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This stamp "on stamp" from the legend called "Maui and the birth of the islands" is an opportunity for the Polynesian Post to put again in the spotlight one of three stamps of a series dedicated to Polynesian legends issued in December 1989, from the woodcuts of the artist Jean-François Favre. Born in 1940 in a small village on the Atlantic coast, this brilliant student became a High-school teacher of plastic arts in 1963 and spent seven years in Tahiti, at Paul Gauguin high school from 1966. He continued his career in France where he won several prizes, and returned to exhibit his works in Polynesia in August 1989.
Here is what the legend says :
Maui god nicknamed "Maui-with-a thousand-tricks" ("Maui-peu-tini" in tahitian language) decides to organize a large part of fishing and built a double canoo in "tamanu" wood, and asks his four brothers to put it in the water. Maui orders them to paddle until they lose sight of the land. When his weary brothers fall asleep, Maui prepares his fishing gear and observes the movement of the birds. He begins to sing to give power to his hook, which consists of fishing for fish that become pieces of land to create a large continent in the middle of the Pacific. "When the big fish Tahiti reaches the surface, the water is cloudy and shakes in a frightening way as if the ocean was boiling."
The different fish are struggling and moving in all directions to form the many islands of the Polynesian triangle, to the north the Hawai'i Islands, to the southwest 'Aotearea, New Zealand, to the southeast Rapa-Nui, Easter island, and in the center the Tongan archipelago, the Samoan one, Wallis and Futuna Islands, the archipelago of the Cook Islands, the society, the Tuamotu, the Marquesas Islands, the
Gambier and the Austral Islands.
The Polynesian Post wishes you a happy holiday season and invites you to discover the islands of French Polynesia created by Maui, through our philatelic issues.
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| Unit price: 160 FCFP (1,34 €) |
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