Réunion Island is located in the southwestern Indian Ocean. It is one of the three islands that comprises the Mascarenes archipelago (with Mauritius and Rodrigues), located East of Madagascar and South of Seychelles.
The Island is a French Overseas Department since 1946, after being a French colony for almost three centuries. Being known by Arab sailors as Dina Morghabine, it was inhabited in the 17th century and called Bourbon Island.
The orography of Réunion is marked by high volcanic peaks and circuses, with an active volcano on the southeast of the island (the Piton de la fournaise) and coastal slopes. Three main circuses, Mafate, Cilaos and Salazie, constitute the mountainous heart of the island, with deep valleys progressing into fertile plains towards the ocean. The Western and southwestern coast presents
narrow coral lagoons.
Being a volcanic island with tropical climate, with extreme climacteric and environmental conditions, the island presents a remarkable diversity of landscapes and ecosystems. Europeans first settled on the coastal regions, while the almost inaccessible hinterland was the territory of maroon communities (enslaved persons escaping the coastal plantations) until the turnof the 19th century. Since the occupation of the island and until abolition in 1848, Réunion, as well other colonial territories, was a slave plantation society. After abolition, Asian (mostly Chinese and Indian) contract workers and free migrants (craftsmen and traders) settled in the island.
The island’s population, thus, has East African, Comorian, Malagasy, Indian, Chinese and European heritage, whose ancestors arrived as enslaved persons, indentured workers, merchants and free immigrants. Culturally, Reunion is a Creole society. Despite of this, the official language is the French, with the Reunionese creole being widely spoken and recognized as a regional language in 2014, being taught and learned in schools and in the university.
Several religions are followed in the island: Hinduism, Christianism, Islam, Taoism and African and Malagasy origin ancestor worship are practiced by the different cultural groups that constitute the contemporary diverse society of the island. In Reunion, as in other creole islands, the diverse religions and cultural heritages influenced each other, building a unique cultural landscape translated in material and intangible heritages.
Réunion presents two UNESCO World Heritage elements, the Piton, cirques and ramparts of Réunion Island, the heart of the La Réunion National Park, inscribed as UNESCO Natural Heritage in 2010, and the The Maloya, musical and dance performance, inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Heritage in 2009.
Besides these two, there are several cultural and natural heritages inventoried, some included in the French national intangible heritage list, as the “bal Tamoul” (popular theatre with Tamil origins), or as national natural sites, as the island marine reserve, on the West coast.
In Reunion our research focuses on the two UNESCO heritages. Despite their obvious differences, they are deeply connected with each other and with the insular environment and landscapes.
