Teriitaria II or Teri'itari'a II, later known as Pōmare Vahine and Ari'ipaea Vahine, baptized Taaroamaiturai ( – 1858), became Queen consort of Tahiti when she married King Pōmare II and later, she ruled as Queen of Huahine and Maiao in the Society Islands.
Teriitaria was the eldest child of King Tamatoa III of Raiatea and Tura’iari’i Ehevahine, a member of the royal family of Huahine. In 1809, Tamatoa arranged for the marriage of Teriitaria and her sister, Teriʻitoʻoterai Teremoemoe, to their widowed second cousin, Pōmare II of Tahiti. Teriitaria became Queen of Huahine in 1815, but did not govern it during the first decades of her rule. In 1815, she fought in the Battle of Te Feipī, which consolidated her husband's rule. Teriitaria had no children with Pōmare II, but Pōmare fathered the next two Tahitian monarchs, Pōmare III (r. 1821–1827) and Pōmare IV (r. 1827–1877), by Teremoemoe. Pōmare II died in 1821, and Teriitaria and Teremoemoe served as regents for Pōmare III and (after his death in 1827) Pōmare IV.
Teriitaria was removed from the regency in 1828, but continued to have an influential role in Tahiti. She led the Tahitian forces in the suppression of the Taiarapu rebellion of 1832. She accompanied her niece, Pōmare IV, into exile on Raiatea during the Franco-Tahitian War (1844–1847). Teriitaria repelled a French invasion force at the Battle of Maeva in 1846, which secured the independence of the Leeward Islands. She was deposed on 26 December 1851 by the governors, the nobility and the people of Huahine and replaced with Ari'imate Teurura'i. She was then banished from the island on 18 March 1854 for troubling the new government. She died in 1858 at Papeete, Tahiti.
Biography Birth and family In 1768, the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa were conquered by the warrior chief Puni of Faanui on Bora Bora and later ruled by his nephew Tapoa I until the end of the eighteenth-century. While still retaining their esteem because of their chiefly rank, the Tamatoa family, which Teriitaria II belonged to, had lost all secular power and had been displaced for half a century on Raiatea. Thus, the Tamatoa family resided on Huahine where the chief U'uru had fled during Puni's conquest. The Tamatoa line of Raiatea was traditionally considered one of the highest ranking lineages of chiefs. It was connected by marriage and adoption to the hereditary chiefs of the other Society Islands of Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Maiao, Tahaa, Bora Bora, and Maupiti. Raiatea and the temple complex of Taputapuatea marae at Opoa were considered the religious center of Eastern Polynesia and the birthplace of the cult of the war deity, 'Oro.
Teriitaria was born around 1790. As the eldest daughter of the family, she held special status since Tahitian society was organised as a matrilineality and therefore traditional titles were passed down by the first-born daughters. Her father was U'uru's son, Tamatoa III, the Ariʻi rahi (King) of Raiatea.; ; ; The ariʻi class were the ruling caste of Tahitian society with both secular and religious powers over the common people. Her mother was Tura’iari’i Ehevahine, the daughter of Queen Tehaʻapapa I of Huahine, who was ruling when Captain James Cook visited the Society Islands as part of his first voyage in 1769. Her younger siblings included brother Tamatoa IV and sisters Teriʻitoʻoterai Teremoemoe, Temari'i Ma'ihara, and Teihotu Ta'avea.; ; Teriitaria shared her name with her half-uncle, King Teriʻitaria I, who was ruling Huahine when Cook brought the Tahitian explorer Omai back to the islands from Europe on his third voyage in 1777.; ; ;
Tahitian names were rooted in land and titles. In the Tahitian language, Teri'i is a contraction of Te Ari'i, meaning the "sovereign" or "chief". The name Teri'itari'a translated literally as "Carried-sovereign". Ari'ipaea (a name she later adopted) means "Sovereign-reserved" or "Sovereign-elect" while Pōmare (a name she later carried, courtesy of her marriage) means "night cougher" with Vahine meaning "woman".
Marriage to Pōmare II
During the late 1700s and the early 1800s, Pōmare I had established the Kingdom of Tahiti through the consolidation of traditional titles and the military advantage of Western weapons provided by explorers and traders such as Captain Cook. Protestant missionaries from the London Missionary Society (LMS) settled in Matavai Bay in 1797 under the protection of Pōmare I, although he did not officially convert to the new faith. His successor Pōmare II saw this legacy unravel because of internal rivalries between the Pōmare regime and other chiefly families and the fear of foreign influence subverting the traditional Tahitian religion. The district chiefs of Tahiti had revolted, evicted the missionaries and thrown off the rule of the Pōmare family by 1808. Pōmare II and his followers fled into exile to his territorial possessions on the neighbouring island of Moorea after his war party was defeated in December 1808.
Pōmare II's union with his first wife Tetua remained childless since both were followers of the Arioi, a religious order that worshipped 'Oro and practiced infanticide. Tetua died following an abortion in 1806. Around November 1808, Itia, Pōmare II's mother, sought to cement an alliance between the Pōmare dynasty and the established Tamatoa line of Raiatea. The alliance also was strategically important for the exiled king, who needed military assistance to reconquer Tahiti. It is said that the ship bearing Teriitaria landed on Moorea a little after the one bearing her younger sister Teriʻitoʻoterai Teremoemoe and that Pomare fell in love with the younger sister. Teriitaria was described as having less feminine features than her fair and elegant younger sister. Unable to reject the older sister for fear of a casus belli (an act to justify war) with Tamatoa III, he married both sisters around 1809. In some sources, the marriage is specifically dated to around 8 November 1811. Pōmare II preferred her younger sister, but Teriitaria was given the status of queen and the honorary title of Pōmare Vahine.; ; ; ; ; Pōmare II's grandmother Tetupaia i Hauiri was also a scion of the Raiatea line making him second cousin of his two spouses.
British missionary John Davies described the circumstances of the marriage and how Teriitaria remained on Huahine and was not brought over to Tahiti and Moorea until 1814–1815.
Teriitaria's marriage with Pōmare II remained childless. Her sister Teremoemoe had three children with him including: Aimata (1813–1877), who ruled as Queen Pōmare IV from 1827 to 1877, Teinaiti (1817–1818), who died young, and Teriitaria (1820–1827), named after his aunt, who reigned as Pōmare III from 1821 to 1827. She was considered the adoptive mother of the young Pōmare III.
Battles for Christianity While in exile, Pōmare II began to rely more on the Christian missionaries, including two who had remained—James Hayward and Henry Nott. The rest of the missionaries had fled to New South Wales following the defeat of the Tahitian king in 1808 but were asked to return in 1811 by Pōmare II. The following year, he publicly announced his conversion to Christianity. Unlike his father, Pōmare II was not a warrior, and he left the active campaigning to his wives. Teriitaria supported her husband's armies in the reconquest of Tahiti and its eventual Christianization. Described as an Amazon queen, she was an energetic and courageous woman who personally led warriors into battle.
In May 1815, Teriitaria and Teremoemoe visited the district of Pare where Teremoemoe‘s daughter Aimata (born 1813) resided with her wet nurse. The native Christians (known as "Bure Atua" or Prayers of God) had re-established themselves in the district. The two women intended to tour Tahiti since it was Teriitaria's first time visiting the island. However, the Memoirs of Arii Taimai by Henry Adams later claimed they intended to proceed with "their arrangement for the overthrow of the native chiefs". The chiefs of Pare, Hapaiano, and Matavai, who were adherents of the traditional religion, formed an alliance with enemies of Pōmare including the chief of Atehuru and Opuhara, chief of Paparā and a member of the rival Teva clan. They plotted to destroy the royal party and massacre the recent converts. On the night of 7 July, Teriitaria and her party narrowly escaped the plot. They survived largely because either Opuhara or the chief of Atehuru refused to harm women. They fled by night in canoes back to Moorea.
In September 1815, the forces of Pōmare II returned to Pare on Tahiti to assert his paramountcy and reconquer the island from the traditionalists led by Opuhara. Teriitaria was at the head of the Christian warriors alongside Mahine, the king of Huahine and Maiao. The two opposing forces met on the shore in the vicinity of marae Utu'aimahurau (or Nari'i) in the district Pa'ea. The Battle of Te Feipī began on 11 November 1815. The fate of the battle was decided when Opuhara was killed in the fighting by Raveae, one of Mahine's men. The Pōmare faction won a decisive victory and restored their rule over Tahiti. British missionary William Ellis, who described the battle as "the most eventful day that had yet occurred in the history of Tahiti", gives a post-facto description of Mahine and Teriitaria preparing for the battle:
The Tahitians abandoned the old religion and converted en masse to Christianity following the battle. The king sanctioned a Tahitian iconoclasm, destroying the traditional foundation of the old religion for any remaining adherents. The marae temples were destroyed, the ti'i figures representing the traditional deities were burned and the construction of new churches commenced. He also sent a collection of his family gods to the London Missionary Society. Teriitaria and Teremoemoe were already converted to the new faith as well and were numbered among a list of recent converts in December 1814. In an 1817 letter to missionary John Eyre in Parramatta, Pōmare II wrote: "There is a great mortality this season. My wife Tarutaria is very ill. Perhaps she will die. The termination of life we know not. None but God knows. With him is life (or salvation.)" She survived the illness.
Pōmare II, who had professed the faith since 1812, was officially baptized on 16 July 1819 in the Royal Mission Chapel at Papaoa, Tahiti. He was the first Tahitian to receive a baptism. The remaining members of the royal family were baptized on 10 September 1820 at the Royal Mission Chapel at Papaoa in the presence of a thousand people. Teriitaria, the newborn son of Pōmare II, and Teremoemoe were baptized by missionary William Crook while the elder Teriitaria and Aimata were baptized by Nott. The sisters adopted the names Taaroavahine and Taaroamaiturai, respectively, although they do not seem to have regularly used these names. Despite the ceremony, Pōmare II, Aimata and the elder Teriitaria noticeably did not take part in the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) because "they did not yet seem decidedly pious". By 1821, Teriitaria was deemed "more correct in her conducts, and more amiable in her manner" and allowed to take part in the Eucharist. In 1824, the LMS missionaries noted, "She is a member of the church at Papaete [sic], and is considered as a pious woman." However, both sisters were described as "excommunicated members of the church" in 1829 by American missionary Charles Samuel Stewart.
Regent of Tahiti