Teiki Pao and his horse, Légende, have a route they take through town and out to the forest. Teiki collects coconuts and husks them so the meat can be dried and sold as copra, the dried coconut that helps drive the economy on many French Polynesian islands. The coconuts that Teiki collects with Légende…
Everything in Aakapa, on the island of Nuku Hiva, is steep: the hillsides, the shore line, all the roads and driveways. The dried coconut industry, called copra, is important all across French Polynesia, and this village of 120 people is no exception. The municipality of Aakapa invested in a coconut drying oven in 2018 to…
Nicolas Haiti lives in the valley of Taipivai on the island of Nuku Hiva. We heard about him and his family because of their oven. Copra, or dried coconut, is an important industry in French Polynesia, including the Marquesas Islands and here in Nuku Hiva. Coconut is dried and then shipped to Pape’ete, Tahiti to…
It was an honour to be part of Women’s History Month this year along with 30 other women who were profiled by Lindblad Expeditions. Check out this video they made for the occasion: They built a web page dedicated to female explorers, with one story per day.
The planning was pretty simple: a conversation between me, Eric, and our local contacts Debora and Kimi. We had a map, a mango, a dog, and a mission. Nuku Hiva has some spectacular hiking trails, and Kimi would take us to them. Kimi is a life-of-the-party kind of guy, with a zany photo collection,…
The landscape of this island, Nuku Hiva, is so extreme it can be hard to find flat ground. That’s why the airport is on the opposite shore from the main town, Taioha’e: there’s only one runway compatible patch of ground. After landing in a small plane, you drive an hour through stunning hills and valleys…
Here is a story I wrote for National Geographic Russia. This story appeared both on-line and in the printed magazine in Russia in February, 2019. It’s a similar but shorter version of the English story that ran digitally.
Smoke from burning leaves lifted into the morning sky. Two custodians had arrived before us, though it was still early, to continue the endless work of carving this site out from the surrounding forest. Debora Kimitete explained that the name of this site, Koueva, refers to dancing that begins in the evening and goes right…
National Geographic ran a pilot project at the University of Virginia this month. The organizations worked together to create one day of presentations and discussions and another day of workshops, all with the goal of supporting students to think creatively about their futures. It was an honour to be part of this day and of…
Debora Kimitete showed us how to slam the car door correctly, so it wouldn’t fly open again. We would spend the day in her Land Rover that has had more adventures than I could ever hope for. The streets of Taiohae are full of memories for Debora, but an important place to begin was…
The views from the air were beautiful. When we came here by ship, just over a week ago, it took a day and a half to reach the Marquesas, the most distant archipelago in French Polynesia. Now we would return to the largest island, Nuku Hiva, in a matter of hours. Before traveling here,…
Guests streamed up the dirt road and wound through trees and flowers to the site of the performance. The bleachers were almost full when we arrived. Dancers and musicians rushed through their final preparations, and then the scene was set. If this place had a roof, they were about to blow it off. This…
The Heiva i Tahiti runs for weeks. It is the largest, splashiest cultural festival in French Polynesia, and people come from all over the archipelagos to attend. It covers sport, handicrafts, and other cultural events, but the big nights are reserved for song and dance. The troupes are huge and they can perform here on…
Here is Meet the North’s next National Geographic story. With each new border and political shift, the indigenous women of Chukotka, Russia adjust to maintain their heritage and survive. Read about how they survive through my words and Eric’s photos. “We were eating more than I thought possible, including jellied whale casserole and fresh apricot buns,…
I was invited to talk with filmmaker/photographer Austin Meyer on his storytelling podcast. We spoke about Meet the North and finding stories. “In this conversation, Jennifer and I talk about how she developed a love for both writing and exploration, her fascinating 3-year project called Meet the North in which she attempted to make authentic…