Flora Aurima Devatine

Flora Aurima Devatine has been a member of the Tahitian Academy Fare Vāna’a since 1972 and was the director of the institution from 2017 to 2023. Flora Aurima Devatine was born in the Fenua ‘Aihere (Tautira, Tahiti Iti), where she lived until the age of 18, to parents from Papeari, Papara and Faaa, which are places of memory and history for Tahiti and other French Polynesian islands with a rich tangible, intangible and symbolic heritage. She comes from a family of Polynesian orators and composers of traditional poems.

She is the author of traditional poems in Tahitian, free verse poems in French and research articles. Aurima Devatine has taught Spanish and Tahitian in secondary schools and has also taught Tahitian and Tahitian poetry at the University of French Polynesia. A State Delegate for Women’s rights from 1979 to 1984, Aurima Devatine set up the Women’s Council of French Polynesia and Women’s Day in French Polynesia. In 2002, she co-founded Littéramā‘ohi, a Polynesian literary journal, with six other authors. She was also the first director of the journal from 2002 to 2010.

In 1980, she was the first woman poet to publish a collection of poetry in Tahiti, Humeurs (Polytram, 1980) under the pen name Vaitiare. She also published Tergiversations et Rêveries de l’Ecriture Orale – Te Pahu a Hono’ura (Au Vent des îles, 1998), Au vent de la piroguière – Tifaifai (Éditions Bruno Doucey, 2016), and a collection of bilingual poems and essays: Maruao, les ailes de l’infini: Poèmes et essais bilingues (Littéramā’ohi, 2022). Her book Au vent de la piroguière – Tifaifai was awarded the Heredia Prize by the Académie française in 2017.

Aurima Devatine was awarded the medal of Officer of the National Order of Merit, Officer of the Legion of Honour and Officer of the Order of Tahiti Nui. In 2017, she was named as one of the “70 Outstanding Oceanian Women” by the Pacific Community. In 2023, she was also awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade (Ordre de la Francophonie et du dialogue des cultures).