YEREVAN/PAPE’ETE, French Polynesia — Vadim Toumaniantz was born in 1983 in Tahiti (French Polynesia), to an Armenian-Italian father and a Russian mother. He was the Tahiti swimming champion in 2000 in the 50, 100, 200, 400 and 1500 freestyle (and the relays thanks to friends). He attended two world championships as an official for his federation. Currently he works in the administration, and manages a labor union in Pape’ete.
Dear Vadim, it was a pleasant surprise to me to correspond with you, learning about your interest on Armenia’s current situation and history. Let’s confess it is really unusual to read in a correspondence with a Tahiti-born guy about his knowledge of Portasar archeological site in historical Armenia! Where is your family from?
Well, obviously my name. That’s the main thing that survived the many travels my family had. My grandfather Garegin came to France and gained citizenship thanks to the French Foreign Legion. He won it for himself and his Italian wife and my father came to Tahiti.
Unfortunately, I do not speak Armenian; the language was lost in my family at the time of my grandfather. He only taught a word per day to my father and my uncle. I barely speak Russian, as mother was born in Baku, but she is of Russian origin: my grandfather was born in Ukraine, was Russian, and I sure hope for peace there — same for Armenia!
Do you know other Armenians in Tahiti? Some years ago, I published an article on Armenian presence in Oceania, including Polynesia. I was in touch with Natacha Mirimanoff from Pape’ete, who is of Armenian-Polish-Tahitian origin.
We have some people here that I know of (some I have actually met, but mostly people whom I noticed their name thanks to the ian/yan ending), but I have never heard of any official association. Anyway, Tahiti is a melting pot of three main cultures (Polynesian, French and Chinese). Thanks to that, most people are usually welcomed nicely there no matter where they come from.
