Easter Island - Hanga Roa

The island of Rapa Nui, commonly known as Easter Island, is one of the most isolated places in the world, located 2,180mi (3,500km) west of continental Chile in the South Pacific Ocean. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, Easter Island is famous for its collection of monolithic statues, known as Moai and the unusual Birdman Cult. 

The island’s beginning is a little sketchy with most of what is known obtained either from oral recordings or archaeological excavations. Settled by Polynesians, radiocarbon dating suggests arrival around 1200 AD, however, some scholars posit that colonisation may have occurred as early as 700 AD.

Oral history tells the story of Hotu Matu’a, a tribal chief from somewhere near the Marquesas Islands (about 2,000mi / 3,200km northeast of Easter Island), who had a dream about an island called Te Pito ‘o te Kāinga, meaning “the centre of the earth”. Gathering a scouting crew, Hotu sent them on a voyage to search for the island, eventually finding Rapa Nui. After a short rest they returned to tell the chief the news, who then left in a double-hulled canoe and landed at Anakena beach.

Over time the islanders split into two major clans who were often in conflict with one another, competing in who could build the bigger Moai and when that didn’t help resolve their issues, they would turn to war and toppling each other’s statues.

The first European contact was in 1722 when Dutch explorer, Jacob Roggeveen landed on the island on Easter Sunday, which is how the island got its name.  He was followed by the Spaniards in 1770, Captain Cook in 1774 and the French in 1786. 

With the exception of a few passing ships, the next round of visitors were Peruvian slave-traders who in 1862 carried off 1,500 islanders, about half the population. Only a dozen of the islanders returned to Rapa Nui bringing smallpox with them, which decimated the remainder of the population including the bearers of the island’s culture, history and rongorongo script experts. 

Christian missionaries arrived in 1864 with the aim to stamp out the islanders’ culture by banning how they dressed, their tattoos and their body paint, essentially destroying their history, leaving little record of their past. By 1878 only 111 native people existed on the island. Annexation to Chile in 1888 all but sealed the islanders’ fate and their Rapa Nui culture had vanished.

The local natives continued to live under severe controls until the mid-20th century when the tourist trade and commercial interests from around the world began to turn things around for the population. Extensive archaeological studies on the island have been ongoing for over a century with special interest in the Moai statues. 

This journey begins in Hanga Roa, the capital of Easter Island. I will be travelling west to Orongo where the story of the birdman cult will unfold; then south to Ahu Tongariki with its 15 standing statues; swinging northwest to Anakena, the landing place of legendary tribal chief Hotu Matu’a; and finally, heading west through the centre of the island back to Hanga Roa. 

Time to head to Orongo.