The Marquesan Journal of Donna Merwick Dening

The voyage on which you are about to vicariously embark begins in mid-December 1974 in Tahiti, where Donna Merwick Dening and her husband Greg Dening lived on the outskirts of the capital Papeete with locals Aritana and Victorine Hozolet. The voyage takes in the other Society Islands to the east, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa, before taking us west to the journey’s ultimate destination – the Marquesan islands. With their ancient maraes falling into disrepair, their lonely graves neglected, and their monuments to European dreams deteriorating, the Society Islands anticipated what was to come in the Marquesas. Anticipated but did not fully prepare Donna and Greg for the experiences that awaited them at the end of December 1974 and the beginning of January 1975 on the islands of Hiva Oa, Tahuatu, Ua Huka, Nukuhiva and Ua Pou.