How did missionaries affect traditional Polynesian dance, music, tattooing, and religion?

Beginning in the late 18th century, the arrival of missionaries in French Polynesia had a profound and often destructive impact on indigenous cultural life. Missionaries, such as those from the London Missionary Society, actively sought to suppress traditional practices that they deemed incompatible with their concepts of morality or Christian belief.12

• Religion: Missionaries worked to dismantle traditional belief systems, often by converting influential chiefs—such as Pomare II in Tahiti—to Christianity. This shift replaced indigenous spiritual practices and the influence of traditional priesthoods with scriptural codes of law and Christian worship.23
• Dance and Music: Traditional songs and dances were frequently suppressed because they were associated with non-Christian beliefs or were viewed as immoral by missionary standards. In many areas, these were replaced by European-style hymns and musical structures.14
• Tattooing: Along with other traditional arts, the practice of tattooing largely disappeared under the pervasive influence of missionary efforts to reshape Polynesian society.1

While these colonial disruptions were severe, contemporary efforts are now focused on reviving and maintaining these cultural traditions through events like the Festival of Pacific Arts.15