At the National Portrait Gallery in London, you will find the Portrait of Mai (Omai), circa 1753-80, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds around 1776. Reynolds's depiction of Mai, the first Polynesian to visit Britain, marks the first British painting to portray a person of colour with dignity and grandeur. Known as “Omai” in England, Mai (ca. 1753-1779) was a native of Raiatea, an island now part of French Polynesia, who travelled from Tahiti to England with Captain James Cook. He spent the years…