In the past, it was customary to raise children from other families when they couldn’t have their own, couldn’t raise them, or simply wanted more children, as was the case with Niso Tuki: “I didn’t live with my biological parents, Eduardo Tuki Hey and Magdalena Tepano Ika, but with my adoptive parents, Alejo Rapu and Filomena Pua Pakomio, who only had two children (Joaquín and Martín), but wanted another. When I was born, they asked my mother to give me to them as their son. She didn’t want to, but my father forced her; women had to respect men. The father was in charge of a family, followed by the firstborn son, because they represented the clan families, and daughters, upon marrying, joined another family.”
It wasn’t until I was 16 that I learned I had 12 other siblings. It shocked me deeply, and from then on, I never went back to the Rapu family; instead, I went to live with the Tuki. The strange thing was that no one said a word—that’s just how things are here. From that day on, I faced a different kind of education. The Rapu had introduced me to the traditions and knowledge of fishing, but now my new family were all artisans and artists. My brother Benedicto would tell stories about our ancestors that he had heard from our grandfather, Leon Tuki, and I would listen attentively, remembering and comparing the stories I had learned before. Unfortunately, I never wrote them down.
“My childhood memories are filled with hard work. We would go out to the fields very early in the morning, plow the land, and drive the oxen. We worked all day. We raised chickens, and there was a corral with cows where we milked them and made cheese. My job was to go to the Navy barracks to deliver milk, eggs, and cheese. We poured the milk into wine bottles; there weren’t any other containers back then. We drank tea or water from tin cans that came from the mainland. Our daily diet consisted of squash with hominy and boiled taro. The land was fertile; we also planted corn, sweet potatoes, and watermelons.”
From 1909 to 1952, the Chilean state leased Easter Island to the English sheep farm Williamson & Balfour, which, in addition to raising lambs for wool export, also raised pigs for lard export. Niso recalls that in 1953, when the Chilean Navy assumed administration, it maintained the custom of delivering four lambs per month. “The workers never lacked meat. Those islanders, who weren’t regular employees, didn’t receive that ration and had to plant corn to feed the Navy’s pigs, selling it to get what they needed to live on. Once a year, after shearing, the Navy ship arrived to take the bales of wool and lard to the mainland, bringing supplies of flour, rice, sugar, candles, matches, etc. Of course, the food didn’t last a whole year. When the flour ran out, our mothers would ask for the sacks to make us clothes. We didn’t have shoes; we went barefoot. Caritas Chile sometimes sent shoes and pencils, but obviously there weren’t enough for everyone, and if you went swimming in the sea and took them off, you might not find them when you got out of the water.”
One of the main problems the Rapa Nui people faced from their annexation to Chile in 1888 until 1950 was leprosy, brought from Tahiti. Niso recalls visiting relatives with the Rapu family who suffered from the disease as a child. “The Navy was stationed where the State Bank is today and kept a watchful eye to prevent anyone from leaving. In 1969, I went to do my military service in Playa Ancha with Elías Rapu. A captain asked us for an X-ray exam, probably because of leprosy, and since we didn’t have it, we weren’t allowed to enter.”
“It was a different time, and education was very different. For example, today everyone turns on a tap and water comes out, but before, we had to go down to the Ana Vai Teka cave, squat down inside with an empty 3-liter jar—one of those Caritas used to send cheese to the island in. We had to crawl through the cave until we found a water source, fill the jar, and go back. Woe betide you if you spilled any water along the way; you’d be scolded, and as punishment, you had to go back to the cave. I started school in the 1960s. In 1962, at age 11, I went with my adoptive parents and their son Joaquín to Valparaíso to study at High School No. 4, across from the Van Buren Hospital. Four years later, we returned to the island when the Mataveri Airport was under construction by the Longui company, which arrived with 60 construction workers. They were supported by the Americans with fuel for the machinery. It was a time of great change.”
The “gringos” Niso Tuki refers to were the American military personnel who—thanks to an agreement between the Chilean Air Force and the US Air Force during the Jorge Alessandri administration—had established a satellite tracking base on Easter Island in 1965. This base employed over 100 single men who worked there and interacted with the local population. At that time, there were approximately 1,200 Rapa Nui people and about 143 mainland Spaniards on Easter Island. Thus, beginning in 1966, with the establishment of civilian rule under the Eduardo Frei Montalva administration, the island became connected to the outside world through the media, regular air service, and the arrival of large contingents of mainland government officials, as well as foreign and domestic tourists.
Niso recalls: “The ECA also arrived, selling groceries, cigarettes, everything. Once the airport was finished, all the landowners bordering it ceded a section for the road, except for one, Rafael Roe, whose descendants are now making claims after having sold a large part of his land. Today’s youth are terrible; they’re no longer interested in traditions or the common good. They sell their land, they don’t care about who they are, they don’t want to learn their language, their genealogy, their history, or the place names. They’ve even lost respect for their elders. The current people of the island are all makupuna, grandchildren who only want to profit from the legacy left to us by our ancestors.” Niso emphasizes that in ancient times, the ancestors were wise, respectful of their hierarchies and of nature: “Our Tupunas, the first navigators who arrived with Hotu Matua, were scientists. Tu’u Koiho was knowledgeable about astronomy, ocean currents, and winds. He was accompanied by Nuku Kehu, an architect; Heiromo, an agronomist; and Paparona, who brought the knowledge of Rongo-Rongo script. According to the stories Niso heard from the elders, astronomical knowledge was written in high relief, and knowledge related to survival was written in low relief. They read with their fingers; by touch, they could read even in the dark without getting confused. They also had knowledge of spirits; for example, people today say that Make Make is a god, but no, he is a spirit.” Niso tells his version of an ancient legend: “A woman named Haua was on Hanga Nui fetching water with a gourd. The current swept the gourd away, and she tried to retrieve it. As she entered the sea, a shark approached and swallowed her, then spewed her out on Motu Motiro Hiva (Salas y Gomez Islet). She climbed the rocks and saw that there were no houses or plants, only birds. Meanwhile, the shark circled the islet and climbed the rocks, transforming into a man. The old woman Haua asked him his name, and he replied, Make-Make. This is the first time Make-Make appears in the history of Rapa Nui. He was also called Atua Hiva.”
Niso Tuki, after living for 10 years in Vaitea tending cows with his nephew Felipe Tuki Tepano, returned to Hanga Roa to help a relative, Daniel Tepano, who ran one of the first hostels for tourists. In 1980, he married María Paté Pont, with whom he has four children. After 37 years of marriage, María says, “Niso is a very good husband. He has never laid a hand on me, unlike many men here. He is also an excellent father. He never wanted to pressure his children; he always said, ‘Let them rest. I don’t want them to suffer like I did.’”
Since 1988, Niso has worked at the Kia Koe travel agency, guiding tour buses and wrestling trips, alongside the Ka Haka Hoki Mai Te Mana Tupuna Organization, for the repatriation and reburial of the Ivi Tupuna (ancestor bones). “For us, the Moai on the Ahu mean nothing without their Pukao (hairstyles or hats), without their Mata (eyes), and without their Ivi Tupuna.”
