Pomare I

Pōmare I, King of Tahiti (1742 - 1803), fully in old orthography: Tu-nui-ea-i-te-atua-i-Tarahoi Vairaatoa Taina Pomare I (also known as Tu or Tinah or Outu or simply as Pomare I), was the unifier and first king of Tahiti between 1788? and 1791.

"Outu" is the phonetic English rendering of "okinaO Tū", Tū being the name, okinao the nominal predicate meaning "that is". Older literature writes his family name as Tunuieaiteatua, which leaves incertainties about the proper pronunciation as Tahitian usually did (and does) not write macrons and glottals. Barring this incertainty, in the current proper orthography would be Tū-nui-okinaēokinaa-i-te-atua meaning Great-Tū,-road-to-the-god. Tū (standing straight up) was a major Tahitian god. Ariokinaitaimai claims that this Tū is a contraction of "atua" (god), but that is unlikely. The name Pōmare was adopted later. Pō-mare means "night cougher", a nickname he took, as was common in that time, because his son coughed at night (see: Ariokinaitaimai).

He was born at Pare, ca. 1743, second son of Teu Tunuieaiteatua by his wife, Tetupaia-i-Hauiri. He initially reigned under the regency of his father, 1743, and succeeded on the death of his father as Ariokinai-rahi of Porionuokinau 23rd November 1802.

As king, Pōmare I succeeded in uniting the different chiefdoms of Tahiti into a single kingdom, composed of the islands of Tahiti itself, Mookinaorea, Mehetiokinaa, and the Tetiokinaaroa group. His service as the first king of unified Tahiti ended when he abdicated in 1791, but he remained the regent of Tahiti from 1791 until 1803.

He married 4 times and had two sons and three daughters.

He was succeeded by Tū Tūnuiʻēʻaiteatua Pōmare II, who reigned 1803-1821.

References

*Teuira Henry; Ancient Tahiti / Tahiti aux temps anciens
*Henry Adams; Memoirs of Arii Taimai / Mémoires d'Arii Taimai