Tamaeva V

Tamaeva V
Queen of Rimatara
Queen Tamaeva V (far right), 1905
Reign	1892–1901
Predecessor	Tamaeva IV
Born	c. 1830
Died	1923
Burial	Royal Sepulchre, Amaru Cemetery
Father	Tamaeva II
Religion	Protestantism

Tamaeva V or Temaeva V, formally Heimataura Tamatoa Tamaeva V (c. 1830–1923), was the Arii vahine no Rimatara or queen of the island kingdom of Rimatara from 1892 to 1901. Her reign came to an end with the formal annexation of Rimatara (the independent Austral Islands) to France. She was responsible for saving the Rimatara lorikeet (Vini kuhlii) from extinction during the early 20th century.

Born on the Polynesian island of Rimatara, Heimataura was the daughter of King Tamaeva II, Arii of Rimatara. She lived in a world influenced by the changes brought on by the westernization of the island. Rimatara had been the last of the Austral Islands to be discovered by Western explorers in 1811. Protestantism was introduced by Tahitian missionaries from the Society Islands and become the dominant religion on the island. A church at the capital of Amaru, constructed in 1857 and renovated in 1892, housed the entire island's population of 300 people under its roof. The small kingdom fashioned its own sovereign flag by 1856. The first law code was introduced in 1877.

Rimatara, along with its neighbor Rurutu, were unique because they remained independent while the other Austral Islands and even Tahiti to the north fell to the French colonial empire. Her father died in 1865. It is assumed that a brother or a male relative succeeded to the throne as Tamaeva III followed by his daughter Queen Tamaeva IV. Heimataura served as regent for the teenage Tamaeva IV. Foreign travelers including French Protestant missionary Frédéric Vernier of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society recorded the existence of an adolescent queen and a queen regent in 1892.

Rimatara and Rurutu attempted in vain to request a British protectorate to hold off French colonial aggression the annexation of Tahiti in 1880. The French responded immediately to what they presumed to be a threat to their interests in the Pacific. On 29 March 1889, the French warship Dives landed on Rimatara with the colonial governor of French Oceania, Étienne Théodore Lacascade, on board, and he had Rimatara and its dependency Îles Maria declared a French protectorate. The French version of the story was that the queen, regent and chiefs had personally petitioned Governor Lacascade to take over the islands, but British sources believed the whole affair to be largely contrary to the desire of the majority of the islanders. The protectorate treaty was signed by Lascarde and five French officials and countersigned by the queen, Heimataura and seven other chiefs or councilors. As a sign of the newly declared protectorate, the French tricolor was added to the canton of the kingdom's flag in 1891.