Aito ta'ata tatata Painting

This is my house being built! These Ta'ata Tahiti (tahitian men/people) went off and cut down a big stack of nice straight young ironwood (aito) trees of various thicknesses. Here they are in the process of peeling the bark from them using machetes. First they tap them with the handle to loosen the bark (hence the title "tatata"--the tapping sound), and then they strip it off with the blade of the machete. It's a very physical job, and they are working in the shade of a forest of pandanus trees on the waterfront, across the road from where we built our house. Tahitian people are sometimes described as not being particularly driven by a western type "work ethic" because of their happy go lucky life style. But when you see them taking on this sort of work you realize how physically capable they are. They are brought up playing hard and working hard in their natural surroundings. They make marvelous life drawing models!