POLYNESIE FRANCAISE POSTE on 29 September 1980 issued a first day cover stamp to mark their participation in the SYDPEX 80. The Australian National Philatelic Exhibition was held at the Sydney Town Hall from 29 September till 6 October 1980. The French Polynesian stamp depicts the Sydney Town Hall and the 1955 French Polynesia stamp of a woman from Bora-Bora. Cancellation postmark originated in Papeete, Tahiti.
After WWII, the road of tourism opened and the film industry took hold of the wonderful beaches and of the island of Bora-Bora's breathtaking lagoon. People came from the four corners of the world to shoot a documentary or a film sequence.
A young girl named Tumata Teutau appeared in a documentary by Landry, the brother-in-law of the French Overseas Ministry of the time. Like many young girls of Bora Bora, she was part of a dance group which kept winning prizes at the July Festival in Tahiti and in which Tumata particularly stood out.
In 1955, she was a model for photographer Adolphe Sylvain but it was a photograph extracted from Landry’s film that called the attention of engraver Pierre Gandon, who exquisitely drew the famous “Young Girl of Bora Bora”, a stamp (shown here) which received the Philatelic Art Grand Prize in 1955 was first issued on 1 October 1955.
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