On September 24, 1877, Joanna Marau Ta‘aroa and Prince Ari‘i-aue of Tahiti ascended the throne as King and Queen of Tahiti. Queen Marau is known as the last Queen of Tahiti. She served from 1877 to 1880, when the kingdom was annexed as a colony of France.  

Marau was born on April 24, 1860. Her mother, Ari‘i Taimai, was part of the Tahitian nobility. Her father was Alexander Salmon, a wealthy Jewish Englishman. Marau began attending Sydney Ladies College in Australia in 1869. In 1873, when she was just fourteen years old, she left the school to marry Prince Ari‘i-aue of the reigning Pōmare family. 

The Tahitian people did not recognize the Pōmare family as valid rulers, instead considering Marau’s mother’s highly regarded family more legitimate. The marriage between the families was a strategy for the Pōmare family to gain esteem and validity in the eyes of their people. 

Prince Ari‘i-aue, over two decades older than his bride, was a divorcé whose many supposed ailments (pneumonia, syphilis, tuberculosis) fueled his alcoholism. The couple’s frequent fights caused Marau to spend most of her time at her mother’s house in Paparā. 

By the time the Tahitian Queen Pōmare IV died in September 1877, the prince and princess had separated, but the couple reunited and were crowned King and Queen of Tahiti on September 24, 1877. Less than two years later, Marau was granted a royal pension and left the King’s home. The couple reconvened only for official ceremonies. Their divorce became official in 1887.  

In 1884, Marau traveled to Paris. She was greatly admired by Parisians and sparked many new fashion trends. She had an affair with a French naval officer, who may have fathered her younger two children.  

Marau had three children: Teri‘i, Takau, and Ernest. Teri‘i and Takau were born after Queen Marau and King Ari‘i-aue separated and Ernest was born after the divorce was final. Although King Ari’iaue didn’t recognize Teri‘i and Takau as his, in time they took the Pōmare name. The King fully rejected Ernest and none of the children were allotted any of his inheritance. Marau retaliated by announcing that the children were indeed not his.   

In 1901, Marau, Henry Adams, and John La Farge wrote the Memoires of Arii Tamaii, a history of pre-colonial Tahiti through her family’s perspective. It is currently considered an authoritative text on Tahitian ethnography. In 1971, Marau’s daughter Takau published her mother’s stories as Memoires de Marau Taaroa. 

Marau was very proud of and connected to her Tahitian identity. Her tomb is a depiction of Mahaiatea: a culturally significant monument in Tahiti as it is their largest marae (temple). 

Sources:  

Archaeologs. “Mahaiatea.” Accessed March 21, 2023. https://www.archaeologs.com/w/mahaiatea/en. 

“Kingdom of Tahiti.” Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Accessed March 12, 2023. https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11760703#Queen_Marau.  

Hoare, Nicholas. “Hidden Women of History: Marau Ta'aroa, the Sydney-Schooled 'Last Queen of Tahiti'.” The Conversation, September 11, 2019. https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-marau-taaroa-the-sydney-schooled-last-queen-of-tahiti-122539.  

“Queen Marau.” Wikipedia, December 9, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Marau.