Rano Kau: Volcano bird men
The volcano Rano Kau It is the most spectacular on Easter Island. With their 324 meters, it is one of the highest points on the island, but the most striking thing is its immense crater of a kilometer and a half in diameter inside which lies an incredible lagoon with floating islands surrounded by a unique habitat. Located in one of the vertices of the triangle that makes up the island, from the edge of the volcano there are three motu, or islets, that became a center of veneration.
They came down the dangerous cliffs, they threw themselves into the water with a cattail float and swam towards the islet of terns
The reorganization of the Rapa Nui society was achieved again with an annual competition that determined who would rule the island in the following year.. This competition called Bird People, u Bird Man, consisted of each tribe sending a representative to Orongo, the ceremonial village located next to the gigantic crater of Rano Kau. The men stayed there until the arrival of the first terns, that annually nest on the farthest islet. Then began a risky career. They all came down the dangerous cliffs, they threw themselves into the water with a float made of cattails and swam towards the islet of terns. The first to return to Orongo with a tern egg became Bird Man and he and his family would rule for a year.. The reconstructed village and the petroglyphs representing the Bird Man gave us an idea of the importance of the event. The key to this competition is that it managed to reduce violence between tribes and thus a new balance was reached..
The arrival of the Europeans created a new challenge: the population dropped to just over a hundred Rapa Nui
But the arrival of the Europeans created a new challenge for the locals., the third. Because of the diseases that travelers brought, plus the deaths from confrontations against the heartless adventurers who shamelessly kidnapped their women to satisfy their low instincts and, finally for the kidnapping of more than 1,500 islanders enslaved and taken to Peru; to 1880 the population had dropped to just over a hundred Rapa Nui. The annexation of the island to Chile in 1887, although not wanted by the settlers, put an end to this dramatic process. The population of islanders grew again but the disappearance of key figures from their society meant the loss of important factors of their culture, such as the meaning of Rongorongo or "great message", your writing system, that remains indecipherable.
For years Chile denied rights to the islanders under the pretext that it was an annexed territory without forming part of the country. Thus, the island was concessioned to private parties for livestock developments that, fortunately, they failed miserably.
For years Chile denied rights to the islanders under the pretext that it was an annexed territory
Things started to look up in the forties. The arrival of the German priest was key Sebastian Englert who began to study and document the history and culture of Rapa Nui. Little by little Chile changed its attitude towards the islanders, allowed them to teach their language built an airport that allowed them to access higher levels of education and health on the continent.
Several people advised us to go to mass on Sunday, not out of religious fervor, but to attend an expression of cultural traits. Something similar to what happens with the masses in Harlem, New York. There we went and we were not disappointed. The mass was dictated in both languages, Spanish and Rapanui, by a priest who added a headdress of striking tribal feathers to his cassock. The congregation has a choir and instruments that give life and color to the ceremony with a marked Polynesian tone.
We went to mass on Sunday. The priest added to the cassock a headdress of striking tribal feathers.
After Englert, the island and its inhabitants attracted the attention of several foreign anthropologists.. And for good reason, It is the people who have traveled the furthest since the departure of Man from Africa fifty thousand years ago; which is ironic because then the same people spent a thousand years confined to their tiny land. So it was that the Norwegian Thor Heyerdal, famous for his feat of Kon-tiki, and many other, studied and rescued much of the rich past of the island and its inhabitants. More recently, the local archaeologist and anthropologist Sergio Search took the post of the scientific study of the ancestral history of his people. Little by little, several of the wonderful moais that had been toppled in their wars, were restored and re-erected in their ahu.
The arrival of flights to the island generated a huge change: the arrival of tourism, which provided them with a great source of income. An islander told me, with humor that their ancestors had built the moais for them to protect them and that is what those stone giants were doing, attracting the tourist flow from which his town is sustained today.
But with the flights came the fourth challenge to the Rapa Nui people, that of the dissolution of his identity. There are only three thousand descendants of the first Polynesians, but almost three thousand other non-Polynesian Chileans live on the island, which added to the large number of tourists, makes the Rapa Nui a minority in their land. In this way, the use of their language is no longer a necessity since Spanish or English are much more useful to communicate.. If internet use is added to this, social networks, plus marriages between islanders and continental Chileans, we come to that the Rapa Nui identity is under siege. Continuing to use their language and maintain their ancestral culture is more of an act of militancy than of practicality.
The Rapa Nui identity is under siege: maintaining their ancestral culture is more of an act of militancy than of practicality
For our last night they recommended us to go to a show of native dances. In general I don't like tourist shows but they assured me that this one was different; very authentic. That night we not only enjoyed watching the Rapa Nui dances but we also met and understood the work of Lyn Search Tuki, creator of the local dance academy. For the Rapa Nui, the tourist show is a way to make viable the effort to keep the dance and other ancestral cultural expressions of their people alive.. Go to these shows, besides enjoying them, means contributing to the sustainability of this fragile culture.
Finally the sad morning arrived when we had to board the plane back. With the conviction that the Rapa Nui would be able to overcome their fourth challenge, we set out for the airport. On the way we asked the taxi to deviate so that at the tourist office they could stamp a moai stamp on our passports., certifying our passage through this mythical island. A few meters, a statue with the name of Hotu Matu´a seemed to bid me farewell. I couldn't stop taking a picture of him.
¡Iorana Rapa Nui!
