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Easter Island - presentation paper

Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian Triangle. The capital of Easter Island is Hanga Roa with the total area being 163,6 km2. Easter Island famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.

Easter Island might be a name a lot of people heard of but never exactly know much about so we'll be focusing mostly on this World Heritage's history rather than the usual travelling recommendation but we will touch a bit on that subject as well.

The first human inhabitants of Rapa Nui (the Polynesian name for Easter Island; its Spanish name is Isla de Pascua) are believed to have arrived in an organized party of emigrants around 300-400 A.D. Tradition holds that the first king of Rapa Nui was Hoto-Matua, a ruler from a Polynesian subgroup (possibly from the Marquesa Islands) whose ship traveled thousands of miles before landing at Anakena, one of the few sandy beaches on the island's rocky coast.

The estimated dates of initial settlements of Easter Island have ranged from 300 to 1200 CE, approximately coinciding with the arrival of the first settlers in Hawaii. According to oral tradition, the first settlement was at Anakena. The island was most likely populated by Polynesians who navigated in canoes or catamarans from the Gambier Islands (Mangareva, 2,600 km away or the Marquesas Islands, 3,200 km away). According to some theories, such as the Polynesian Diaspora Theory, there is a possibility that early Polynesian settlers arrived from South America due to their remarkable sea-navigation abilities.

According to oral traditions recorded by missionaries in the 1860s, the island originally had a strong class system, with an ariki, or high chief, wielding great power over nine other clans and their respective chiefs. The high chief was the eldest descendent through first-born lines of the island's legendary founder, Hotu Matu'a. The most visible element in the culture was the production of massive statues called moai that some believe represented deified ancestors. However, no written and little oral history exists on the island, so it's impossible to be certain.

Archeological record shows that the island was home to many species of trees, as well as at least six species of native land birds but human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat and overpopulation led to gradual deforestation and extinction of natural resources which severely weakened the Rapa Nui civilization. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to about 2,000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, to a low of only 111 inhabitants in 1877. After a Catholic missionary heard about the unfortunate event he went for a nine months visit in 1864. The missionaries told the natives to abandon their old practices and they did after a while. They converted all natives to christianity. No slave trade ever occurred at Easter Island again.

No colonizing country had any particular interest in Rapa Nui because of its remoteness. Britain recommended Chile to claim it to keep France from doing it first. In 1888, Chilean naval captain Policarpo Toro let the current Rapa Nui king Atamu Tekena (who wasn't really of straight royal lineage, but only someone assigned by the real king to rule) sign a deed, giving Chile full and entire sovereignty over the island, while the Rapa Nui translation used words such as friendship and protection. Even so, 1888 is officially the year when Rapa Nui became Chilean.

After the Second World War, syntetic wool was invented, which complicated the market for Easter Island Exploitation Company, a company was set up by British/Chilean that came to Rapa Nui in 1903. As a result of this, together with the constant native uprisings, the company did not renew the contract to lease thei sland as a sheep farm for 50 years, but left the island in 1953.

The Rapa Nui people today are around 3000, though not many of the new-born have two Rapa Nui parents. The native language is not widely spoken. People born in the 1980's or later are often only able to hold simple conversation in Rapa Nui, and tend to change into Spanish quite quickly. Deeper knowledge of the ancient Rapa Nui language is today somewhat of an exclusivity. Chile today takes well care of the Rapa Nui culture and the government does what it can to help the islanders to do the same.

Coming back to the subject of Moai statues, they are monolithic human figures carved between 1250 and 1500 A.D. Many know them as the Easter Island heads. This is a misconception from having seen photos of statues in the volcano Rano Raraku partially covered up with soil. Truth is that all of these "heads" have full bodies. Averaging 4 meters high, with a weight of 13 tons, moai statues were carved out of tuff (the light, porous rock formed by consolidated volcanic ash) and placed atop ceremonial stone platforms called ahus, which are tombs for the people that the statues represented since moai statues were built to honor the chieftain or other important people who had passed away but again it's impossible to be certain as no written and little oral history exist on the island.

Seeing the Moai statues are in fact one of the things many have said to definitely do if you ever have the chance to visit Easter Island as you'll be able to see them in all their glory and in all stages of production. Another interesting that you could do is watching the sunrise and sunset. Fun fact, the sunrise in Easter Island is quite late as in April, sunrise happened around 8:30 am. You can also chose to bike around the island; watch a dancing show at Vaitemiki as they host traditional Rapa Nui dancing shows; see the ancient petroglyphs at Papa Vaka as these petroglyphs often depict several marine scenes that include fishing, the use of canoes, and several marine animals, part of the daily life of the Rapa Nui. The view on Rapa Nui or Easter Island is astonishing so if you can afford it, a trip there would be totally be worth it, especially if you are into photography.

In conclusion, Rapa Nui or Easter Island is a very beautiful island with an intriguing and fascinating history, which we sadly can not fully talk about but if you are interested in knowing more about its history then the internet would be a good place to go. I hope you enjoyed this presentation.