S1-E46: Raiatea: South Pacific Cuisine

How can a people so gentle commit acts so cruel?
In May 1774, Captain Cook’s expedition returns to Raiatea—and finds paradise laced with paradox. At the center: the Errioys, a revered group of artists and priests whose vibrant performances hide a devastating truth.

Raiatea welcomes the HMS Resolution with dance, feasts, and ritual—but soon, the crew learns that Errioy status comes with a chilling price: no children. Through conversation with their Polynesian friend Maheine and a pregnant dancer named Teina-Mai, the Europeans confront a cultural practice they cannot reconcile with the warmth they’ve experienced.
Alongside this moral dilemma, the island offers moments of insight and beauty: dramatic performances mimic childbirth and ritual, gods with island-specific names reveal a fractured cosmology, and the taste of grog meets native kava in a curious exchange of spirits.

**Laid on leaves and roasted in earth, the pig is served with ceremony—but what feeds one side of the feast leaves the other only watching. – Click on the image to listen to this episode on YouTube.**

But not all is joy. Maheine—once celebrated—now finds himself drained by familial expectations, gifting away the last of his treasures. Rumors of other European ships spark tension, and as the departure draws near, every custom, every story, feels heavy with meaning.

This episode delves into cultural contradiction, ethical complexity, and the fragile bridge between admiration and misunderstanding.