The style is started by one person singing a stanza.
Other singers gradually join in and rhyme with the person.
[2] One of the earliest forms of himene tarava originated in Tubuai, French Polynesia in 1844.
Similar hymns originated due to the fact that the country was becoming more Christian since it became a French Territory in 1832.
In the 1950s children were taught how to sing himene tarava.