Pouvanaa a Oopa

Politics 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. becoming the first French Polynesian to serve in the French Chamber of Deputies. and 1956.

He became the leader of the local government administration of the islands in 1958. Under the slogan of "Tahiti for the Tahitians; Frenchmen into the sea!", Pouvanaa's RDPT swept local elections.

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. The 'no' vote was defeated in the referendum by a margin of 62–36%, He was released from prison in 1962. He continued to hold this office until his death in 1977.

Legacy

In 1982, the Pouvanaa a Oopa Monument was erected in Papeete in front of the Assembly of French Polynesia. 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. A street in Papeete, Avenue Pouvanaa A Oopa, is also named in his honor.

Pouvanaa's family requested a new trial in 1988, though their request was denied by the French Justice Department in Paris. The call was repeated in 2013. 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. Patrick O'Reilly claimed that the accusations were the result of a "Molotov cocktail [that] had been thrown over a wall by a city employee, and then recovered by another city employee."