Viki & her granddaughter Here Moana
María Virginia (Viki) Haoa Cardinali was born in 1955 in Rapa Nui, of Polynesian and European roots. On her mother’s side, she descends from her great-grandfather Rafael Cardinali Lazzarini, an Italian who came on the ship Apoline Emilie, which grounded ashore in Apina in 1896. On her paternal side, she is a descendant of Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, through the two daughters he had: Caroline and Marta. On the Rapa Nui ancestral side, she is a descendant of Pakomio Maori Ure Kino, who managed to return to Rapa Nui after living hell as a slave in the guano steads in Peru.
Her childhood, like that of most of the people of that time, was marked by having responsibilities from a very young age. She was already taking care of her younger siblings at the age of 5. From school, she remembers being seated with the Chilean children, specifically with the daughter of the maritime governor of the time, given she fit in: she was pretty, petite and, besides, her father was in the Navy. “The rest of my classmates were big, brutish, and they were sat in the back. Not a fly would fly in class, because we didn’t speak Spanish and the nuns would beat us if we spoke in our own language. I remember very well one day when they hit Isabel Pakarati in the face, who was older than me, just because she was speaking in Rapa Nui. In the face! I will never forget it,” Viki recalls.
At the age of 9, she was sent to study on the mainland, as well as all her siblings. A very important pillar for Viki is her grandmother, from whom she received her unwavering values. When she finished school, Viki entered the School of Medicine in Playa Ancha; however, she switched to medical technology after one year. “There I studied the 4 years of the career, and I graduated while pregnant with my first daughter, Baihere, who was born in 1981 at El Salvador Hospital. Not much time passed and I became pregnant with my second daughter, Matarena, who was born in a strong storm in June 1982.”
Viki and her father Nicholas Now MacKinnon
Viki & Rosita Cardinali Paoa, her mother
Maria Angela Cardinali maternal grandmother & Emilia Paoa Cardinali, grandmother’s sister
The rescue of the Rapa Nui language
A very important part of Viki’s life is her work for the preservation of the re’o Rapa Nui, which began to gain strength after the birth of her daughters and that has led her to be named a Living Human Treasure by UNESCO, a merit she felt she did not deserve in 2012: “People like the koro Alberto Hotus or Alfonso Rapu, I believe you, but me?”
Viki is humble, but she deserves it. This work began around 1984, with the literary workshops conducted by the Weber linguists. “I did various things; from an AIDS brochure to translations of all kinds. I also had a show on the radio and one on TV, live. The language issue always motivated me because I wanted my daughters to receive a legacy that I had to give to them, and to the children of the island, because it hurts me: less and less is spoken at homes.
Here there is a problem of awareness, of the value of the language of a society that is more than a thousand years old. So, if that awareness is lacking, we are living in a superficial consumerism without taking into account the weight of our roots, where we come from, who we are and our histories, and that is sad,” says Viki.
Viki and her father Nicholas Now MacKinnon
Marcelo León Pakarati, one of the many students that Viki remembers with great affection
Books Created by Viki Haoa Cardinali
“In the immersion program I did at Liceo Lorenzo Baeza Vega, no one spoke any language other than Rapa Nui. With my assistant, they never saw me speak Spanish, and it wasn’t that I told them it was forbidden, but that there was no other language that could be heard in the room. Hence, it was quick to level children up. Besides, they always thought I didn’t know Spanish. One day, unfortunately, I was caught talking to a colleague in Spanish and one girl accused me with all the children. What a disappointment! But you know what? They kept speaking to me in Rapa Nui. Those kids kept speaking Rapa Nui until the end. I always tried to attend case by case; I dedicated the first hours to be at each table with each student, because I always had a rejection of homogenization. They put us in a classroom of 30-40 children and we teachers are not enough. Looking at the experience of Hawaii or Aotearoa, they have 15 children, maximum 20. It makes you want to replicate the models and that is what we have tried to do here with Honga’a, for example.”
Viki with Nainoa, her grandson, son of Baihere
Viki & Kihi Haoa Cardinali
Viki also participated in the creation of the Day of the Rapa Nui Language and Culture, which was established around 1990 when children in school neither played nor spoke in Rapa Nui, indicating that the language was being lost. That year, Viki began teaching night classes to adults to promote literacy and re-literacy. She then proposed the idea of creating a day dedicated to the Rapa Nui language, inspired by her father, who worked with Don Alberto Hotus and the Spanish philologist Jesús Conte. “My father suggested that just as endangered animals are protected, we could create a day to call on the community and authorities to support the teaching of Rapa Nui in school,” says Viki.
“With my colleague Hilaria Tuki, we presented the idea to the school administration. Although there was initially little acceptance, we managed to get it approved as a day to showcase schoolwork. We prepared dramatizations, historical narratives, takona, pata’uta’u, and poetry. We held a poetry contest for children from 3rd to 7th grade, with prizes, despite the lack of funding and the resistance from some parents and children. We received support: the Kahu Kahu Ohera Corporation provided logistical support, and the Mata Tu’u Hotu Iti Cultural Group conducted artistic and Rapa Nui language rehearsals with the children. Over time, the municipality and the school joined the effort, and the event moved to the Tongariki Cultural Center and then to Hanga Vare Vare, where it is held annually.”
Viki is still translating and publishing storybooks in the Rapa Nui language. She will soon deliver a thematic dictionary for young children, to be launched in the second semester of 2024, and already has set with whom to publish her next three stories.
Daughters of Viki Rosita Matarena & Baihere
