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RAPA NUI CULTURE

CREMATION IN RAPA NUI

CREMATION IN RAPA NUIby Cristian Moreno Pakarati - Historiador / HistorianCremation is a funerary or post-funerary ritual which allows a cadaver to be disposed of cleanly. The practice dates back at least 20 thousand years among the Australian aborigines and was also...

Ana Hue Neru

Ana Hue NeruThe Caverns to whiten the YoungLas Cavernas para blanquear a Jóvenes As far back as the late 19th Century, various expeditions have attempted to unravel the mysteries of the Rapanui culture through archaeological research and the oral traditions of the...

Rapa Nui Soldiers in the War of the Pacific

Rapa Nui Soldiers in the War of the Pacificby Cristián Moreno PakaratiHistoriador / HistorianIt was a point of pride for the Rapanui families of the past when one of their members would join the Chilean Armed Forces. To see them in uniform with their proud bearing was...

Ngaru’a or Neck Pillow

Ngaru’aor Neck PillowAntiguamente los isleños no buscaban mayores comodidades en sus Hare Paenga (casas bote), en los Hare Mauku (habitaciones de piedra techada con pasto) o en la caverna que eligieron para vivir; para ellos estos espacios eran solamente lugares donde...

The Origin of the Polynesian Peoples

The Origin of the Polynesian Peoples La Cultura Lapita · The Lapita CultureAmong the rare archaeological certainties that we have on the ancient Polynesian peoples, one undisputed fact stands out: The Polynesian people descend from the creators of a complex culture,...

The rebirth of ancestral medicine

The rebirth of ancestral medicineThe Rapanui community of today is in the process of reclaiming many different aspects of their social and political life.  One of them is the rebirth of ancestral medicine. Currently on the Island is an old field hospital, built in the...

Ancestral Medicine on Rapa Nui

Nga RongoaAncestral Medicine on Rapa NuiWithin the philosophical world view of the Rapanui, good health is based on the union of man and nature, between life and death, in the present, the past and the future.Any mishap or disease has its origin in supernatural forces...

Mokomae

Mokomaethe Word Made FleshMokomae is the name of an ancestral warrior of the Ure or Mokomae clan which used to live in the area of Poike.  It is from the Araki tribe. One of their descendants is the Chilean - Rapanui Luis “Tito” Hormazábal Araki, today a Tohunga ta...

The Society of Friends of Easter Island

The Society of Friends of Easter Island by Roberto  Rojas P. - Antropólogo / AnthropologistThe anthropologist and investigator Rolf Foerster, who was a professor of the University of Chile, has dedicated his research and writing to the native communities of La...

Kai Kai y Pata’uta’u

Games with string, forming figures full of fantasy, are a pastime found throughout the world and within almost all cultures.

LEGENDS

The Battle between the Short-Ears and the Long-Ears

The Battle between the Short-Ears and the Long-Earsby Cristián Moreno Pakarati · UC/Ahirenga Research / Hanga Roa, Rapa NuiOne of the most well...

Hena Naku

Hena NakuHena Naku, the god of feathers, loved Te Pito o te Henua, the Navel of the World, the ancient name for Easter Island. The sea birds, which...

Te Mana o Te Vahine me Te Tane

Te Mana o Te Vahine me Te TaneThere is a feminine form, just as there is a masculine form. The first serves to nurture and to give birth; the other...

Each newborn receives his Mauri, Varua, Ha y Hau

Each newborn receives his Mauri, Varua, Ha y HauWhen Te Uru Tai flows from the womb of a fertile woman and joins Te Wai Tai, the seed of a man, a...

Caress and Cultivate the Child of Peace

Caress and Cultivate the Child of PeaceNo one knows if Today will be followed by Tomorrow. No one is sure if the Seed that we sow will prosper. No...

Marama

MaramaSome peoples follow the sun, but our life is joined to the phases of the moon, Marama.  Our lives are counted by the nights, not the days.  We...

The Man who was born from a Chicken

The Man who was born from a ChickenTwo men of the royal Miru tribe were walking to the well known bay of Hotu Iti where there was an abundance of...

Los Tokotoko

The Tokotoko guard the secrets of our land"Bind life to other life”… was the call to our ancestors to set sail toward new islands.  Our women took...

Legend Maori URU KEHU

URU KEHU Legend Maori  “The ancient seas roared under the influence of the moon and the stars and the Uru Kehu o Nga Tupuna finally...

Polynesian Legend

Polynesian LegendA fact of lifeThe Waitaha tribe of New Zealand tells us that in maorí communities there are always men and women who prefer to...

ASTRONOMY

Eyes which look to the Sky

Mata Ki Te RangiEyes which look to the SkyBe Alexandra EdwardsRapa Nui PlanetariumIt has taken 4 years to complete the construction of the...

The Tupas -Astronomical Observatories

The Tupas -Astronomical Observatories In Polynesian cultures, the celestial dome had a very high significance.  From the interpretation of the...

Archaeoastronomy on Rapa Nui

Arqueoastronomía en Rapa Nui Knowledge of the movements of the stars and planets and the seasonal changes, the definition of a lunar calendar and a...

TESTIMONIES OF THE PAST

Manuel Tuki

Manuel TukiAt almost one hundred years of age, the sculptor Manuel A. Tuki is a shining example for the young people of today. He lives on his farm...

María Angata

María Angata......... y la Rebelión de & the Rebellion of 1914Maria Angata Veri Tahi, daughter of Hare Kohou (of the Miru tribe) and Veri Tahi a...

Niso Tuki Tepano

Niso Tuki TepanoIn the past, it was a custom to raise children from another family, for various reasons: not being able to have one's own children,...

Patricia Lillo Chinchilla

Patricia Lillo ChinchillaPatricia Lillo, daughter of Eusebio Lillo, thus a descendant of the composer of the Chilean national anthem, and Elba...

Alberto Hotus Chavez

Alberto Hotus ChavezAlberto Hotus, 82, is Chairman of the Rapa Nui Council of Elders. This was created in 1980 with the aim of recovering the...

Matusalem Masú Hey

"Matusalem" Masú HeyMasú Hey’s family name really should be Edmunds. His father, Enrique, is the son of Henry Percival Edmunds, the English...

Carmen Cardinal

Carmen Cardinalhe current Governor of Isla de Pascua is the granddaughter of Rafael Cardinali, an Italian who arrived to the Island during the First...

María Haoa

María HaoaIve had a very sad life. My mother, Estela Haoa, abandoned me when I was born. She was only 17 when she got pregnant. I was raised by...

María Ignacia Paoa Rangitopa

María Ignacia Paoa RangitopaMaría Ignacia is the daughter of María Carmela Languitopa and Alberto Paoa-Bornier, a grandson of the French settler...

ANA RAPAHANGO

Ana Rapahango, 80 years old, is the granddaughter of Antonia Tepuku and the daughter of Victoria Rapahango and the Englishman, Henry Percival...

LIVING NATURE

Small Life in the Sand of Rapa Nui

Small Life in the Sand of Rapa NuiIn just a handful of sand from the sea can be hundreds of thousands of small meiofauna animals.This worm with many...

PURE The Endangered Sea Snail

PUREThe Endangered Sea Snailby Ernesto Díaz CabreraEstudiante Doctorado en Ciencias, mención Ecología y Biología Evolutiva de la Universidad de...

Bees Rapa Nui

Bees Rapa NuiFree of Pathogens, a Source of Life and LoveBees were introduced to Easter Island by the Catholic missionaries of the Sacred Heart of...

El Tavake and its future

The Tavake And its future, a challenge for Rapa NuiOne of the loveliest spots on the Island is the Moai (statue) quarry at Rano Raraku. Anyone who...

Marine Reserve in the bay of hanga roa

Marine Reserve in the bay of hanga roaAccording to the experts and the international NGOs that are dedicated to marine conservation, the oceans...

Toromiro Revives on Rapa Nui

Toromiro Revives on Rapa Nui Etnobotany Recovery   The toromiro, a sacred tree planted around ceremonial centers, was declared extinct over 50...

Wetlands of Rapa Nui affected by Climate Change

Wetlands of Rapa Nui affected by Climate Changeby Tahira Edmunds (Consultora Independiente - Independent Consultant), Cristóbal Cox (GP Consultores...

Climate Changes on Rapa Nui

Climate Changes on Rapa NuiEffects on animal life in the Eastern Pacific Ocean: El aumento de las lluvias relacionado con El Niño aumenta la...

Plastic contaminates the coast of Rapa Nui

Plastic contaminates the coast of Rapa NuiEvery year millions of tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans.  The largest part of this rubbish ends...

Overfishing on Rapa Nui

Overfishing on Rapa NuiA group of scientists, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, recently arrived on Easter Island following an...

UNDERSEA WORLD

PURE The Endangered Sea Snail

PUREThe Endangered Sea Snailby Ernesto Díaz CabreraEstudiante Doctorado en Ciencias, mención Ecología y Biología Evolutiva de la Universidad de...

Everything is in Motion – An Island in the Middle of the Ocean

Everything is in Motion – An Island in the Middle of the Oceanby Martin Thiel, Bernhard Steinberger & Tim KiesslingDid you know that the...

Diving, Underwater Hunting and Sharks

Diving, Underwater Hunting and SharksTestimonio de Testimony of Poki Tane HaoaHundreds of divers come to Rapa Nui every year in search of some of...

Marine Reserve in the bay of hanga roa

Marine Reserve in the bay of hanga roaAccording to the experts and the international NGOs that are dedicated to marine conservation, the oceans...

Overfishing on Rapa Nui

Overfishing on Rapa NuiA group of scientists, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, recently arrived on Easter Island following an...

Marine Park on Salas y Gómez

Marine Park on “Salas y Gómez”The international conservation organization, Oceana, and the National Geographic Society scheduled an expedition to...

A HITCH-HIKERS GUIDE TO RAPA NUI

A HITCH-HIKERS GUIDE TO RAPA NUIA HITCH-HIKERS GUIDE TO RAPA NUIby Sabine Rech - ESMOIEven though Rapa Nui is one of the most remote places on...

Mana, a Seamount off of Motu Motiro Hiva

Mana a Seamount off of Motu Motiro Hivaby Javier Sellanes Núcleo Milenio de Ecología y Manejo Sustentable de islas Oceánicas (ESMOI)–Facultad de...

The Great Ocean Predators of Rapa Nui

By Naití Morales - ESMOI, Universidad Católica del Norte. The great predators of the sea, such as sharks, tunas, swordfish, bonitos and others which...

Ura – The Lobster of Rapa Nui

by Erika Meerhoff, Armando Mujica, María Luisa Nava & Beatriz Yannicelli - Esmoi One of the most notable crustaceans of Rapa Nui is the endemic...

NEWS

The details of the next Tāpati after the Covid 19

Te tātou 'ōro'a he Tāpati Rapa Nui 2023Mai te toru ki te ho'e 'ahuru mā ho'e mahana o Hetu'u PūThe details of  the next Tāpati 2023 after the Covid...

Rapa Nui – The Mystery Lives

Rapa Nui - The Mystery LivesA Message from the Easter Island Chamber of TourismRapa Nui, the land of mystery and living history, where you can...

Mahana o te Re’o Rapa Nui

Mahana o te Re’o Rapa NuiThe Day of Our LanguageOn Friday, November 3, the Island celebrated ”The Day of Our Language”. This has become a festival...

Honui

HonuiThe Rapanui Families Organize2016 was the 50th anniversary of the government of Chile establishing civil administration on Rapa Nui, after...

Island Entrepreneurs purify the Water

Island Entrepreneurs purify the WaterIn the past, Easter Islanders got their drinking water from the craters of the extinct volcanoes Rano Kau, Rano...

Rapa Nui Top Secret

RAPA NUI TOP SECRETA North American Air Force base installed on Easter Island in the 1960s was part of a project of espionage on the Soviet Union...

International Conference Ubud, Bali

Ubud, Bali 2016International ConferenceEarly Pacific Migration Scientists from Australia, New Zealand, Russia, USA, Germany, Cook Islands and Rapa...

A Choir for Rapa Nui

A Choir for Rapa NuiLast December, the newly-formed Choir of Isla de Pascua offered its first presentations in the parish church and in the Hotel...

Teatro a Mil 2017 in Rapa Nui

Teatro a Mil 2017 in Rapa NuiThis coming year, the international theater festival “Santiago a Mil” will also include Easter Island. The artistic...

Total Lunar Eclipse on Rapa Nui

Total Lunar Eclipse on Rapa NuiOn January 31, at 5:51 a.m., local time, Easter Island will witness the beginning of a total eclipse of a so-called...

HISTORY

Let history remain history

Let history remain historyThe first Europeans who came into contact with Te Pito te Henua were three Dutch ships commanded by Jacob Roggeveen on...

The wreck of “El Dorado”

The wreck of “El Dorado”On the morning of Wednesday, June 11, 1913, the small American steam schooner “El Dorado” of the Sanders & Drinkwater...

Sebastián Englert

ORO MATUASebastián EnglertPriest of Rapa NuiSebastián Englert, a Capuchin priest and researcher of the Rapanui culture, lived on Easter Island from...

Vaitea A Historical Place

VaiteaVaitea is the name given to the area in the center of the Island where there is abundant water coming from the Rano Aroi volcano. Each trip by...

American satellites tracked in Rapa Nui

American satellites tracked in Rapa NuiIt was the year 1966.  A US Air Force base with 120 men under the command of Colonel John Ashley was...

French Expedition of 1872

French Expedition of 1872Pierre Loti dibujó y registró en sus cuadernos de guardiamarina sus impresiones, datos de la población y paisajes, logrando...

Iorana MANUTARA

Iorana  MANUTARA“Iorana, welcome Manutara and thank you for coming to Rapa Nui” are the first lines of a song written by Parapina Araki when the...

Ancestral Medicine on Rapa Nui

Nga RongoaAncestral Medicine on Rapa NuiWithin the philosophical world view of the Rapanui, good health is based on the union of man and nature,...

Guerillas of Che Guevara in Rapa Nui

Guerillas of “Che” Guevara in Rapa NuiPolitical asylumOn February 26, 1968, while I was Governor of Easter Island, I received a radio-telegram – we...

Mokomae

Mokomaethe Word Made FleshMokomae is the name of an ancestral warrior of the Ure or Mokomae clan which used to live in the area of Poike.  It is...

TAPATI RAPA NUI

Tapati Rapa Nui 2011

Tapati Rapa Nui 2011From the 3rd to the 12th of February, the traditional Tapati Rapa Nui was held.  This is an anual festival in which the families...

ARCHEOLOGY

Rano Raraku, New excavations in Easter Island’s Moai quarry

Rano RarakuNew excavations in Easter Island’s statue quarry: Soil fertility, site formation and chronologyby Jo Anne van TilburgA recent study has...

Ana Hue Neru

Ana Hue NeruThe Caverns to whiten the YoungLas Cavernas para blanquear a Jóvenes As far back as the late 19th Century, various expeditions have...

Ngaru’a or Neck Pillow

Ngaru’aor Neck PillowAntiguamente los isleños no buscaban mayores comodidades en sus Hare Paenga (casas bote), en los Hare Mauku (habitaciones de...

Talismans of Rapa Nui

Talismans of Rapa NuiHo’onu o Tortuga or Turtle: In the old days, turtles were very common on Easter Island. La Perousse Bay was originally called...

The Eye of the Moai

The Eye of the MoaiBy Cristian Moreno Pakarati - Historiador / HistorianNearly three hundred megalithic statues were at one time erected on...

The Cult of the Ancestors and the Moais

The Cult of the Ancestors and the MoaisScientists, especially ethnologists, have long studied how different and complex communities were formed and...

Ara o te, the moai road

Ara o te, the moai roadHalfway up the side of the Rano Raraku volcano and buried up to their chests, more than a hundred giant statues (Moai) never...

Rock Paintings from Orongo

Rock Paintings from OrongoDuring their visit to the stone houses in Orongo where the men of the Bird-Man cult used to perform their rituals,...

German Archaeological Excavation

AVA RANGA UKA A TOROKE HAUGerman Archaeological Excavation (2nd Stage)New studies are being done by the German and Swiss archaeological team,...

The Failure of the Moai

The Failure of the MoaiTestimonials and legends confirm that there were difficult times.  Juan Tepano, a major source for Routledge, Macmillan Brown...

POLYNESICAL CULTURE

CREMATION IN RAPA NUI

CREMATION IN RAPA NUIby Cristian Moreno Pakarati - Historiador / HistorianCremation is a funerary or post-funerary ritual which allows a cadaver to...

The Origins of the Polynesians 3

The Origins of the PolynesiansTonga & Samoa, Cuna y Núcleo de la Expansión Polinésica / Crib and Nucleus of Polynesian ExpansionLarge migratory...

The Origin of the Polynesian Peoples

The Origin of the Polynesian Peoples La Cultura Lapita · The Lapita CultureAmong the rare archaeological certainties that we have on the ancient...

Sex and Divinity in Polynesia

Sex and Divinity in PolynesiaThe real understanding of Polynesian culture has been very slow. Stories, drawings and even photographs of explorers,...

Sacred Trees in Polynesia

Sacred Trees in Polynesia by Annette Kühlem Trees in French Polynesia are believed to be a direct gift from the gods. Early creation myths tell us...
MAGAZINE MOEVARUA