Testimony From the Past

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 and, since he retired, he hasn’t stopped carving in stone and wood. Major works with his signature are to be found in...

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 Kau (of the Haumoana tribe) was born in 1854. During her childhood, when she was barely 8 years old, she witnessed the...

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, not being able to raise one's own child or simply because a family wanted to have more children, as was the case for...

Patricia Lillo ChinchillaPatricia Lillo, daughter of Eusebio Lillo, thus a descendant of the composer of the Chilean national anthem, and Elba Chinchilla, has lived for more than 50 years on Easter Island, as a result of her older sister Elvira marring Marcelo...

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 investiture of Rapanui chiefs and rejecting the delivery of individual titles of land ownership, a situation that was opposed...

"Matusalem" Masú HeyMasú Hey’s family name really should be Edmunds. His father, Enrique, is the son of Henry Percival Edmunds, the English administrator for the Williamson & Balfour sheep company between 1903 and 1930, and of Sofía Hey, the mother of the first...

Carmen Cardinalhe current Governor of Isla de Pascua is the granddaughter of Rafael Cardinali, an Italian who arrived to the Island during the First World War looking for opportunities and founded the Cardinali clan, a name that is today considered Rapanui. Carmen...

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 grandparents, Adela Haoa and Isaias Fati, whom I always considered as my true parents. My biological father never recognized...

María Ignacia Paoa RangitopaMaría Ignacia is the daughter of María Carmela Languitopa and Alberto Paoa-Bornier, a grandson of the French settler Dutroux-Bornier, who took over the lands of the Easter Islanders and proclaimed himself “King of Easter Island”, prior to...

Ana Rapahango, 80 years old, is the granddaughter of Antonia Tepuku and the daughter of Victoria Rapahango and the Englishman, Henry Percival Edmunds, who was the resident administrator of the Island for the Williamson &  Balfour Company from 1906 to 1930.  My...

Ursula RapuMy father was called Alejo Kana Kyoka.  He was the son of a Chinese, but my grandmother’s husband accepted him as his son and gave him the family name of Rapu.  He was white skinned and, when I was born and he saw me as dark as my mother, he thought that I...

Rosa Ika PaoaThe daughter of Napoleón Ika and Flora Paoa, Rosa today is 73 years old. With her 17 brothers and sisters, she belongs to the aristocratic Miru tribe. “My father is the son of a Frenchman who took refuge on the Island after his cargo ship, the “Jean”, was...