Hinatea Boosie, Roxy's Only Tahitian Model, Crowned Miss Tahiti at Age 20

Twenty-year-old Hinatea Boosie, a psychology student who believes Tahiti's women today are "intelligent, active and becoming more and more independent", is the new Miss Tahiti, winner of the biggest and most prestigious of the yearly beauty contests.

She was elected during a contest that created a very Tahitian and very romantic ambiance built around the theme of the H.M.S. Bounty epic of the 19th Century that has been made into a Hollywood love story on four occasions. One of the most famous versions featured Marlon Brando as Lt. Fletcher Christian and the beautiful Tahitian Tarita Teriipaia, who fell in love with him, in real life as well as in the film, "Mutiny on the Bounty".

A second theme during this year's contest focused on solidarity for women in distress throughout French Polynesia. At the end of the long evening, a check for one million French Pacific francs (US$13,423/$3,3780) was presented to the president of the French Polynesia Women's Association to help improve the equipping of the "Pu o te Hau", the home for women in distress.

A jury, backed by a telephone poll, chose Ms. Boosie as the 48th Miss Tahiti winner since 1960, the oldest of the yearly beauty queen contests that has only not been held once—in 1967. Nearly 2,000 telephone votes were received. However, the jury's vote counted for 80% of the choice.

The large dinner audience in the gardens of the Tahiti Sheraton Hotel Tahiti included Teura Bauwens, the very first Miss Tahiti in 1960.

For Ms. Boosie, the Miss Tahiti crown won her the chance to participate in December's Miss France 2008 beauty contest.

Ms. Taoahere Richmond, last year's Miss Tahiti, crowned Ms. Boosie Miss Tahiti 2008 before the hotel audience as well as a live television audience throughout French Polynesia thanks to RFO Télé Polynésie, the French state owned and operated television network.

The Miss Tahiti Committee collaborated with RFO in organizing this year's four-hour-long contest, which presented the 12 candidates before the audience five times, allowing each to demonstrate their talents as well as their convictions before the jury.

The winner, Ms. Boosie, is a student at the ISEPP, an institute that prepares teachers for Tahiti's private school educational system. She is also currently on a photo shoot with Roxy on the island of Tikehau. And, is proudly Roxy's only Tahitian model.

"If Miss Tahiti embodies the grace, beauty and values of the Tahitian woman", she must above all us the title "to defend humanitarian causes", Ms. Boosie told the jury.

Dadou Paillé, a former traditional Tahitian dance group performer and leader, also formed a partnership for this year's Miss Tahiti contest with an association made up of former winners of this prestigious beauty queen title. Her objective was to put this year's candidates directly at the heart of a daily concern in French Polynesian society today—violence against women.

Some 50 former Miss Tahiti winners who belong to the association became partners in the organization of the contest. Moea Amiot-Faugerat the 1975 Miss Tahiti, and vice president of the Miss Tahiti Committee, said, "Miss Tahiti 2008 must become a symbol of the refusal to be a woman scorned and humiliated.

Source: TahitiPresse

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