Tamaeva V

Tamaeva V
Queen of Rimatara
Queen Tamaeva V (far right), 1905
Reign1892–1901
PredecessorTamaeva IV
Bornc. 1830
Died1923
Burial
Royal Sepulchre, Amaru Cemetery
FatherTamaeva II

Tamaeva V or Temaeva V,[a] formally Heimataura Tamatoa Tamaeva V (c. 1830 – 1923), was the Arii vahine no Rimatara[3] or queen of the island kingdom of Rimatara, an island within the larger Austral Islands archipelago, from 1892 to 1901. She served as regent for her predecessor Queen Tamaeva IV.

Tamaeva V's reign was disrupted by ongoing French expansionism in the Pacific. She and her predecessor Tamaeva IV had previously attempted in vain to request a British protectorate to hold off French colonial pressure. This action resulted in the declaration of a French protectorate over Rimatara on 29 March 1889. In 1900, the neighboring kingdom of Rurutu was annexed to bring it economically closer to French controlled Tahiti. As the last monarch in the Austral Island group, Tamaeva V ceded Rimatara to the French on 6 June 1901 and the island was formally annexed on 2 September 1901 and incorporated into the territory of French Oceania, today part of the overseas country of French Polynesia.

Tamaeva V was responsible for saving the Rimatara lorikeet (Vini kuhlii) from extinction during the early 20th century. The species was threaten by overhunting and the introduction of black rat. In 1900, she declared a tapu or taboo which forbade any Rimataran from exporting, exploiting, or harming the bird. Surviving population of the birds were reintroduced to Atiu in the Cook Islands in 2007. Tamaeva V died in 1923 and her remains were interred in the Royal Sepulchre at the Cemetery of Amaru.

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