Hiva Oa, the second largest island, is located in the southeastern group. Home to the harbor town of Atuona, this island is usually the first port of call for sailboats crossing west over the Pacific. This is the most historic island in the group, with some of the largest ancient tiki statues in French Polynesia. Known as Gauguin's Island, Hiva Oa is also the final resting place for painter Paul Gauguin and poet Jacques Brel. Both artists are buried at the Cimetière du Calvaire, Calvary Cemetery, overlooking Atuona.
Jacques Romain Georges Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, later throughout the world.
Jacques Brel was one of the great representatives of French chanson in the post-World War II period. Born into a bourgeois family, Brel rejected the future awaiting him in his father’s cardboard factory and turned to singing. At the height of his success, in 1967, he chose to stop singing to devote himself to theater and cinema.
In 1974, aboard a sailing ship, Brel left for the Canary Islands, near Morocco. He eventually weighed anchor at the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia. Just before leaving for the Marquesas, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was forced to undergo an operation. He returned to France to record a final album called Les Marquises. Feelings of injustice, respect and generosity that pushed him to produce his best songs were still present on that album. There were excellent songs like “Jaurès,” “Orly” and “Voir un ami pleurer.” Jacques Brel died in Paris on October 9, 1978, at the age of 49. He was buried in the Marquesas.
He died on October 9 1978