Rapa-Nui -- An Article

The compelling history of Rapa-Nui  is now all in your hands  - under this statement. 
   Now, we are going to take a journey back through time, landing at the island called Samoa. A huge ocean-going raft has just been created, and a group of people, with a chief named Hotu Matu'a set sail looking for new lands. These Polynesians were great seafarers, and could tell where land was just by looking at the direction of the returning waves. After about 20 days, the group of Polynesians arrived at Easter Island, and decided to name it Rapa-Nui. As there must have been thousand of trees and a picturesque beach, all on a tiny island the size of 163.6km squared, they probably thought they had discovered paradise. At that time, there were only 10-20 people on the island, so they started building a village called Orongo. Soon, their chief Hotu Matu'a died, and to remember his great leadership, they built a beautiful statue made out of volcanic tuff, now known as Moai, to commemorate his great leadership. Soon, when anyone important or liked died, a Moai was created to remember the person. After a year or so, only two or three Moai had been created, as it took five people a year to carve and transport one Moai. Maybe you might be asking "how did they move them" but that is only minor to the history of Rapa-Nui. Let's now fast forward to the 10th century.

    By then, the population of the island was increasing at a steady, but fast pace, and trees were being cut down as resources to build houses, and the ocean-going canoes that allowed the inhabitants to go to distant civilisations and come back with more food and resources, not counting information. Now, there were two different groups - Long-Ears, and Short-Ears. The long-eared people had huge ear lobes, and were considered powerful, whereas the short-ears were dismissed and uncared for. There were about 500 different Moai at that point, large and tall, and were all made in the volcanic quarry at the top of a mountain. The crafting of Moai now was like going to work nowadays, being so ordinary that almost everyone built them to commemorate their families. Finally, the language of Rapa-Nui had not really evolved from what it was before.

    200 years later, more and more trees were needed to build the canoes, houses for more people (the population then was well over 5,000), and wood to survive the harsh winter. In addition to that, trees were also cut down to make wooden sculptures and necklaces. There had not otherwise been much change.

    In the 1500's, there was a turning point in the life of the people in Rapa-Nui. Food was running out, and the population had hit its peak at 20,000. There was a massive shortage in food, and when all the trees were gone, the people of Rapa-Nui were stuck, stranded on the island as they had no more wood to make canoes. Soon after that, warfare started. Different tribes started to compete for resources, and then, since there was only enough food for 100-200 people, people were 

desperate, and cannibalism started. People ate each other, and soon there was a cave named Ana Kai Tangata, and literally translated, meant either "the cave where men eat" , or "the cave where men are eaten".  Both the former and latter are accepted, but the latter is the one that is widely thought to be true.  

   In the height of the war, the people of Rapa-Nui came up with a idea, known to most as the Birdman Cult. This was supposed to be a result to the poverty of the island. Every year, they would hold a competition.  First, the contestants would  run down a thousand foot hill to the ocean, swim 1 mile to the island where the birds nested, which was just off the island. Now, the people of Rapa-Nui considered birds holy, as they were trapped on the island, whereas the birds were free and could fly anywhere. They were considered the messengers of God. Finding an egg of a bird on the island and returning it to Rapa-Nui was considered a great feat, and the first would be the one who controls the food on the island. The war finally did end, but only when the European explorers arrived..........

    In 1722, Jacob Roggeveen arrived at the island, but didn't think much of it, and left. However, in March 1774, Captain Cook arrived at the island, and, sadly, their arrival meant the end of the society of Rapa-Nui. He was extremely interested, and stayed there for a few days. Interestingly, the people of Rapa-Nui still had a very old and almost rotten canoe left, and paddled up to Captain Cook's ship, asking for cloth and wood (real picture above). Cook himself didn't understand him, but the Polynesian on the ship - Manuto, did, and told them that if they had food they would trade with them. However, the two people, instead of taking food out, took out some wooden figures they had crafted. Manuto fell in love with them, and immediately bartered all their wooden figures for the cloth and wood (sketches at left), and then left after a short walk around the island, and with them carrying diseases. What they saw were the last surviving people of the war, and the Moai.  Sadly, the diseases from people on Cook's ship spread on the island and infected the natives, causing most of them to die out, marking the end point of the historic and interesting history of Rapa-Nui.