We wanted to see if the two of us, man and woman, could resume the life abandoned by our first ancestors . . . Independent of the least aid of civilization.
In 1936, eleven years before upending conventional theories on primitive human migration by sailing the Kon Tiki raft from South America to French Polynesia, newlyweds Thor and Liv Heyerdahl left Norway for an experiment in minimalist living in the Marquesas. Fatu-Hiva, “the most verdant and unspoiled island in the South Seas . . . Mountainous and lonely [with] few natives and no white men [or so they thought]” was their home for a year that began in paradise and ended in peril.
For one season, their contempt for modern conveniences proved well-founded as they feasted on the forest’s abundance. Then came the rainy season, mosquitoes, and jungle rot that forced a retreat to beach settlements plagued with tuberculosis, elephantiasis, and leprosy. Along the way, many gentle and generous souls helped them: offering food, shelter, and medical aid that narrowly kept Live from losing a leg. They rode dug-out canoes to catch flying fish by torchlight, raided ancient burial grounds for skull samples, photographed stone statuary unlike any other in the South Pacific, and befriended a cannibal chieftain of a forgotten era whose origin stories corroborated their sketchy notions of colonization by South Americans. Sadly, when an unsavory minority threatened their security, their idyll came to an end in a cave where they watched for a rescue ship like refugees.
Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature, published in 1974 continues the story of the Heyerdahls’ Marquesas adventures first published in 1938 as Hunt for Paradise. At 269 pages, this second telling, equal parts memoir/history/ethnography, is superbly illustrated with 61 black and white photographs. For a peak at this beautiful island, watch this brief tour, Marquesas Discovered by Mike Satori: Fatu Hiva Island in Footsteps of Thor Heyerdahl.