Jean-Claude Teriierooiterai (1952 — 22 October 2020)[1] was a French Polynesian linguist and anthropologist. An advocate of the Tahitian language, he was a member of the Tahitian Academy.
Teriierooiterai grew up in Papenoo on the island of Tahiti, and was the grandson of Norwegian trader Bjarne Kroepelien.[2] At the age of 14 he was sent to school in New Caledonia, where he encountered the Wallisian language and wrote a Wallisian - Tahitian - French lexicon.[2] He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the Lycée technique de Nouméa, then returned to Tahiti.[2]
He worked as professor of Polynesian Culture at the University of French Polynesia and was president of the Fa’afaite-Tahiti Voyaging Society.[3]
In 2013 he defended a doctoral thesis on Polynesian navigation, on Myths, astronomy, time division and traditional navigation: the Oceanian heritage contained in the words of the Tahitian language.[4]
On 10 June 2013 he was inducted into the Tahitian Academy.[5] [6]
In 2014 he worked with Marguerite Lai and the Artistic Conservatory of French Polynesia to produce Te Feti’a Avei’a, a dance production about the journey of a Polynesian canoe.[7] In 2019 his show Te Aho Nunui won the Heiva i Tahiti best author award.[8]
Teriierooiterai died in Paris in October 2020.[1] [9] His book Le fabuleux voyage de la langue tahitienne ("The Fabulous Journey of the Tahitian Language") was published posthumously in 2022.[10]