Heidy Baumgartner Lesage
Archaeologist-Restorer · Expedition guide · Lecturer
- Lat.
- 17°32′S — 149°34′W
- Reg.
- From Valparaíso to Sydney · via Rapa Nui, Tahiti & Hawaii
- Est.
- MMXXV
A reading of the ground, kneeling with the stones.
"Beyond the crossing, the real journey is stopping and reading the story in the stones."
Origins
Born in Lucerne, Switzerland — a country with no ocean that nevertheless prepared her for a life on islands. She studied in Germany, training as a restorer and conservator in archaeology — a profession of patience, of precise gestures, of fine brushes on ancient stone. Then, in the mid-1980s, the great leap: Tahiti. She never left. Forty years later, she is still there, and the island has become as much a part of her as she is of the island.
Fieldwork
She walked the ground before she ever told its story. Lapita excavations in New Caledonia, fieldwork on Easter Island, then years with the Service de la Culture et du Patrimoine and the Department of Archaeology of French Polynesia, unearthing, measuring, cataloguing, saving what could be saved. Alongside the University of California, Berkeley, and under the direction of Dr Sidsel Millerstrom, she took part in the Rock Art Project — a systematic inventory of petroglyphs, stone tiki and ceremonial structures scattered across the archipelago. Painstaking work applied to centuries-old remains. She is also co-author of the guide Mave Mai, The Marquesas Islands.
Lectures
From this archaeological foundation grew a second life, that of the lecturer. For years she has spoken aboard Lindblad–National Geographic expeditions, Eyos Expeditions, the Aranui, the Paul Gauguin, and companies such as Hapag-Lloyd on the Europa — an international, demanding audience that changes nationality at every port and must be captivated in several languages at once.
The narrative
Her talks are nothing like a rigid master class: she moves from Gauguin to Jacques Brel, from Marquesan tattooing to the great Polynesian migrations, from the mutineers of the Bounty to the volcanic geology of the islands, passing through daily life, traditions, art. The common thread is herself: field-based scholarship, never bookish, always verified with trowel and rain.
Reach
Her sphere of action extends well beyond Tahiti. She guides and lectures from Santiago to Sydney and from Auckland to Honolulu — a mental map of the Pacific built excavation after excavation, island after island, port after port.
The essence
What her listeners remember is not a CV, however dense, but a way of telling the Pacific without folklorising or sanitising it: with the rigour of the archaeologist and the narrative sense of someone who chose these islands forty years ago and who continues, each season, to find new stories to tell them.
Three ways into a site.
- 01
Pacific archaeology
Reading and interpretation of the region's sites, marae and cultural remains.
- 02
Expedition guiding
Guiding travellers on the ground, from Melanesia to Eastern Polynesia.
- 03
Onboard lectures
Cultural and historical talks for maritime expedition companies.
A half-Pacific horizon.
Based in Tahiti. Missions and embarkations from Valparaíso to Sydney, New Zealand to Hawaii.
- French Polynesia17°32′S · 149°34′WBase
- Easter Island (Rapa Nui)27°07′S · 109°21′WMissions
- Pitcairn25°04′S · 130°06′WMissions
- Marquesas Islands9°47′S · 139°02′WMissions
- Cook Islands21°14′S · 159°46′WMissions
- Samoa13°45′S · 172°06′WMissions
- Fiji17°42′S · 178°04′EMissions
- New Caledonia22°16′S · 166°27′EMissions
- New Zealand41°17′S · 174°46′EMissions
- Kiribati & Christmas Is.1°52′N · 157°24′WMissions
- Hawaii21°18′N · 157°51′WMissions
- Valparaíso / SydneyEmbarkation portsPorts
Operators & partner companies.
Write from any port.
For a briefing, an onboard lecture or a field mission.
Send a messageheidy@heidy.org