Although France conducted nearly 200 nuclear tests in the South Pacific during the 20th century, few Tahitians have received compensation to this day.
That's unlike the Marshall Islands, which has a treaty with the United States that allows residents to travel without a visa in the U.S. to access health benefits, education and jobs.
Both island nations have a shared history of nuclear impacts during the Cold War, including displacement of Indigenous peoples from their homes and illnesses like cancer.
Tahitians, or Mā'ohi, are the Indigenous people of French Polynesia, or Mā'ohi Nui. Now, some in the diaspora have been raising awareness about France's nuclear history through art and advocating for transparent environmental studies of the nuclear effects.
Vehia Wheeler, who is from Hawai‘i, is one of the five environmental activists of Mā'ohi Nui who attended the third United Nations meeting on prohibiting nuclear weapons in March.
“It's important for us to go to these types of meetings because we learn more about what are the international mechanisms that are working towards nuclear justice,” Wheeler said.
The treaty was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2017. So far, 94 countries and nation states have signed the treaty, but not France, the U.S., China, Russia and other countries that conducted nuclear tests in the 20th century.
Wheeler said since Tahiti is a French territory, only nation states and countries have the right to sign the treaty.
“The treaty is important because part of it focuses on prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons, development of them because of how dangerous the consequences are,” she said.
She said part of the treaty addresses health impacts and environmental remediation.
“That's people who are exposed to nuclear testing like we have been in the Pacific or people who have experienced it through such, such as Hiroshima in Japan,” Wheeler said.
‘Compensation is only monetary’
France conducted 193 nuclear tests from 1966 to 1996 at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls. That includes 41 atmospheric tests that exposed people working in those areas until the mid-1970s. Those tests are believed to be more dangerous because of the potential for fallout to travel since the bomb is detonated at high altitude.
The nuclear tests took place more than 700 miles southeast of Tahiti's main population centers, like Papeete, but residents say they were also impacted.
In 2010, France created a nuclear compensation plan for victims in French Polynesia and Algeria after pressure from veterans and civilians. But 97% of complaints between 2010 and 2017 were denied due to strict criteria for victims proving a direct link to their illness and radiation exposure from the nuclear tests.
As of 2021, only about half of the complaints were approved after the criteria for compensation changed.
But survivors seek more than just compensation.
“Compensation is only monetary,” Wheeler said. “That's just in and of itself a huge problem because money does not necessarily cure this problem.”
Léa Goigoux, a spokesperson for the French consulate, said in a written statement that France has demonstrated “unmatched transparency” regarding the nuclear tests it conducted.
Since 2013, France has made its archives related to nuclear testing available to the public and publishes the results of environmental monitoring programs annually, Goigoux said.
France, for years, has tried to downplay its nuclear impacts on the Polynesian islands. But the impacts from the tests were far greater than previously acknowledged.
A report from the investigative newsroom Disclose, researchers at Princeton University, and the environmental research collective Global Security found that almost the entire Indigenous population in French Polynesia at the time, roughly 110,000 people, was exposed to radiation.
The report prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to acknowledge France's “debt” to the Polynesians affected by nuclear tests during his trip to the Pacific region in 2021, according to the Associated Press.
Last month, France's Atomic Energy Commission spent more than 90,000 euros on a study in an attempt to counter research on its history of nuclear testing, according to The Guardian.
Activism through art
France was one of the last countries to stop nuclear testing in the South Pacific due to international protests and boycotts.
The U.S. Census Bureau in 2020 reported more than 7,900 Tahitians living in the U.S. and more than 750 identifying as French Polynesian. It's unclear how many Indigenous Pacific Islanders from Mā'ohi Nui live in France.
Teatuahere Teiti-Gierlach is Mā'ohi and was born on O‘ahu four years after France stopped nuclear testing in the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls, more than 700 miles from Tahiti, the most populous island.
The 25-year-old was unaware of nuclear history until she attended college at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
“That's not something I grew up knowing,” she said. “The heartache that comes with that. We didn't leave because we wanted to. We didn’t leave in the ways that our ancestors left our homes in search of adventure or something new. We left because we had to."
The Teiti-Gierlach family is one of around 110,000 people dealing with the aftermath of French nuclear tests. She said her family never sought compensation.
While cancers and reproductive health issues run in her family, especially among women, it's unclear if the health issues are caused by nuclear testing, but her family feels it is likely.
Teiti-Gierlach uses poetry as a way to educate the public about what has been happening to her home islands.
This year, she recently traveled on the Peace Boat, a Japan-based company that travels around the world to promote peace, human rights and sustainability.
She recited her poem, “I Know This Pain Doesn’t Belong To Us.”
“I know this pain doesn’t belong to us, yet this pain feels too familiar,” she recited. “I know how the colonizer's blade feels. Every piece of our fenua scorched by French devastation. Our moana connects us. Our moana connects everything, including radiation.”
Teiti-Gierlach said art is a way to show resilience.
“To Indigenous people, we understand poetry, song, and art is one of the ways that we have always communicated how we feel about our land, how we feel about what’s happening in the world, and at the same time, by communicating our resistance and our resilience against these horrific things,” Teiti-Gierlach said.
Teiti-Gierlach and Wheeler are part of a younger generation that continues to raise awareness about the nuclear history of Mā'ohi Nui.
“I completely understand people's hesitation to talk about these things, but I think us, the younger generation, realize that if we don't take a stand against this, if we don't say it outright, then nothing's going to change,” Teiti-Gierlach said.
Wheeler said she hopes there will be more honest education in France about its nuclear history, more funding for medical care like cancer treatment facilities in Mā'ohi Nui and more environmental studies in the islands.
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