EASTER ISLAND

Stony sentry’s, carved years ago by Polynesian craftsmen, gaze over one of the most remote places in the world. With their land enlarged by overuse, islanders now draw on a revival of their culture to attract visitors. I intend to tell about this small island off the coast of Chile named Easter Island.

Easter Island, submerged volcanic mountain range in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is located 500 miles South of the Tropic of Capricorn, and 2,200 miles West of Chile. This area is located were it is swept by strong trade winds. Because of his, the island remains warm through out the year. As you know, Easter Island is small. To be exact it has an area of 64 square miles about the size of Washington D.C. Easter Island’s population as grown a lot since diseases spread to most of the island in1877. Some of the remaining people left for South America, and the island was left 110 people. The population grew throughout the years in 1955 it was 990, in 1980 it was 1,842 and in 1989 it was 2,095.

As many people have traditions, at parties and other celebrations, Easter Island has its own. They paint their bodies, the chant, they dance and the sing songs of their forbears. Each September, flocks of sooty terns come to nest on tiny islets about a mile off the shore. Since ancient times, there have been ceremonies to celebrate the birds’ arrival and to choose the birdman. The birdman competition is where each clan selected a representative to swim to the islets where the birds nested. They are to find and egg and swim back the first one back with an unbroken egg becomes the birdman. Another competition is during Tapati Rapa Nui - Rapa Nui is where guys race with heavy loads on their backs to try to win points for a girl, out of many girls, who want to be crowned festival queen. Some islanders practice the custom of elongating their earlobes. This was done by piercing the ear and gradually enlarging the hole.

Today most experts believe that Easter Island was first settled by Polynesians looking for a new homeland. About 1680 A.D, the quality of life on the island began to decrease. At this time, clan rivals erupted in a bloody battle between long ears and shorts ears. This destruction of the islands natural resource undoubtedly contributed to its decline. Droughts and other weather events may have also contributed. On Easter Sunday 1722 A.D, a Dutch explorer by the name of Admiral Jacob Roggeveen landed on the island (he is also the one who named the island). After Roggeveen visit in 1722 A.D. it was almost fifty years before any outsiders’ cam again. In the nineteenth century, a few more ships visited but none stayed long. This was because of the violent encounters with islanders. One reason the encounters were so extreme was because there were multiple attempts to capture islanders as slaves. The worst slave raid occurred in 1862 A.D, when more than a thousand islanders were kidnapped and transported to Guan mines in Peru. The Chilean government annexed Easter Island as a territory in 1888 A.D. and until 1953 A.D, the government leased most of the land to a sheep-ranching company.

The giant stone statues, placed all over the island, were built between 800 and 1600 A.D. About 880 stone statues remain on the island today. Most of them range in size from 11 to 20 feet. Some rise up as far as 40 feet. The huge stone cylinders on some of the statues’ heads are thought to be hair, hats or crowns. The large topknots on top of the heads weigh about 27 metric tons and are made of red volcanic stone. The eyes on the statues are believed to be inserted only on special occasions. The irises of the eyes are made of red coral. The platforms on which the statues sit on are called ahus, burial platforms. They are situated on bluffs and other positions overlooking the sea.

“The Austronesian languages formerly called Malayo-Polynesian, cover the Malay peninsula and most islands of the south east of Asia and is spoken as far west as Madagascar and through out the Pacific islands as far east as Easter Island. The Austronesian languages include Malay(called Bahasa Malaysia in Malaysia and Bahsa Indonesia in Indonesia), Javanese, Hawaiian, and Macri(the language of the Aboriginese).”1 In addition to making statues, islanders carved similar wooden figures to match the statues. Another form of artistic expression widely seen on Easter Island is rock art. “Rock art” or petroglyphs are either painted on or either engraved in rock. Some pictures mostly seen are animals, their creator god “Makemake”, and other religious figures.

Except when they sleep or take shelter from bad weather, the islanders spend most of their time outdoors. The simplest and most common shelters were caves. They also sleep in houses. The name for their houses is Hare Paenga (the Rapanui word for house is Hare). The shape of the house was oval and about 100feet long. There are remains of a house being 160 feet long. Around the house they grew many crops including bananas, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, yams and taro root (a starch). They are still grown there today. The islanders’ diet also contains chickens, birds and sea life. The main clothing for men was a loincloth; women wore a kind of skirt or apron. Some chiefs wore capes. Their means of transportation was by foot or boat. In 1966, the first air port was built. In 1986, they enlarged their air strip for emergency landings for U.S space shuttles.

Easter Island is one of the smallest islands I know about. It is a miracle that the Polynesians landed there. If you were to ask people to locate Easter Island on a map very few people could do it.