About

Ia Ora Na.  Welcome to the Te Ta’ata blog and website written by Nicola Marae Allain, Ph. D., Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at SUNY Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

My life has been a journey across sea and desert, with island stops along the way. I grew up to the rhythms of primal ancestral drums, senses heightened by the perfume of gardenias and the scent of the sea. The gods of family legends inhabit my inner world and my creative works.

My ancestors hail from both Tahiti and Europe, and I study the intersection of these cultures. I’ll be writing on Tahitian and related cultural concepts and performance practices, along with various topics on my research, personal and creative interests. I am most intrigued by the essential questions of life, perhaps best expressed by Paul Gauguin in his masterpiece D’où venons Nous? Que sommes nous? Où allons nous? ( Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?).