Mai

Who is Mai?

Mai, known in Britain as "Omai," was a young man from Ra'iatea in the Society Islands who became the first Pacific Islander to visit Great Britain and only the second to visit Europe, after Ahutoru, whom Louis Antoine de Bougainville had brought to Paris in 1768. Mai joined Captain Tobias Furneaux's ship HMS Adventure, part of James Cook's second Pacific voyage, and arrived in Britain in July 1774. He quickly became a celebrated figure in London society, lodging with the naturalist and Royal Society president Sir Joseph Banks, meeting King George III, and socializing with prominent figures including the writer Samuel Johnson. In 1776 the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds completed a full-length portrait of him, remarkable as one of the first British portraits to depict a person of color with grandeur and dignity; the painting remains a major work in British art collections today. Mai returned to the Pacific with Cook's third voyage in 1776, arriving back in the Society Islands at Huahine in 1777. He is generally believed to have died around 1780, still in his twenties, likely of natural causes.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Mai (Ra'iatean man)" / "Omai" (biographical summary) · National Portrait Gallery, London, "Mai (Omai) by Joshua Reynolds" · Art UK, "The many painted lives of Mai, Britain's first Polynesian visitor"