Every four years, the ‘Festival des Marquises’ brings representatives from all over the Marquesas Islands and around the Pacific to celebrate the culture that makes each island unique. Food, dance, traditional medicine, palm and pandanus leaf weaving, tattooing, sculpture, and various other cultural arts were performed and shared with the other islanders and guests from all over the world (most arriving by sailboat!) Groups from Marquesas, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and the Pacific Northwest performed spectacular traditional dances. This was a very special event. They were not dancing for tourists; I was lucky to be one of not many ‘outsiders’. They were dancing for the pride of their islands, for each other, for their past, and to carry forth what remains of the ways of their ancestors. The old ways everywhere are slowly dying. There is no going back. And as always, modernity brings the bad with the good…But I was delighted by the amount of time, energy, and spirit that the islanders invested in this celebration and preservation of culture.