{"id":10712,"date":"2019-09-11T23:26:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T23:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/ana-rapahango\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:38:08","slug":"ana-rapahango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moevarua.com\/en\/ana-rapahango\/","title":{"rendered":"Ana Rapahango: The Midwife Who Transformed Healthcare on Rapa Nui"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Testimony from the Past<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ana Rapahango \u2014 80 years old at the time of this account \u2014 is the granddaughter of Antonia Tepuku and daughter of Victoria Rapahango and the Englishman Henry Percival Edmunds, administrator of the Williamson & Balfour Company who resided on the island from 1906 to 1930.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her life is a testimony to resilience, adaptation, and service. From the daughter of a British administrator to a midwife who saved lives on the island, Ana Rapahango represents the story of those women who charted the course of modern medicine on Rapa Nui.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Childhood Between Two Worlds: English Legacy on the Island<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My father left, leaving my mother alone with his four children: Jorge, Alicia, Juan and me, who was still on the way. Before he departed, he built a house for us outside the Company lands, completely furnished, and left money so the Company would give my mother an annual income for a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had lived with my father for 10 years and adapted well to an English way of living. She was strict and kept us all very proper. Fulfilling my father’s wishes, when I was 10, my sister Alicia and I went to live in Mataveri with the family of the administrator Colin Morrison, my father’s successor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An English Education in the Pacific Ocean<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I appreciated the English education that I received. They taught me to cook, to clean, to set the table, and to make the beds. I remember they told me: “If you take things from here to there, you must bring them back when you return.” I learned to be frugal and to calculate everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lived well and never lacked anything. On weekends, they took me to the countryside or we would go out in boats around the island. I lived happily until I was 18 and then I encountered a different life \u2014 one that would forever change the course of my existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Journey to Valpara\u00edso: Training as a Midwife<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ana Rapahango was sent at age 18 to Valpara\u00edso to learn the profession of midwifery at the Hospital of Vi\u00f1a del Mar, whose director was Dr. Gustavo Fricke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those days it wasn’t like now \u2014 it was easier. They taught you everything and then let you practice. I rotated through all sections of the hospital, even the morgue. That was the most interesting part. We were 20 women in the Red Cross course, and nobody wanted to go in there from pure fear. I just went in anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctor gave me a large knife and told me to cut firmly on the cadaver that was on the table. I did it and saw all the insides of the dead woman \u2014 something I have never forgotten. After a year I had an examination because they needed me urgently on Easter Island. I was almost 20 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began to work in the hospital where I met the head Navy nurse, Rafael Haoa. Without having a clear idea of what marriage was, I married him. My mother let me choose, although the custom at that time was for parents to select husbands for their daughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ana<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Life on Rapa Nui: A Midwife in the Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Discovering a Different World<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Rafael explained to me that on the island the women had their babies in their homes. In my childhood I hardly ever went into town, but later I knew it better than anyone and could see how the people lived. For me it was a completely different world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those days there were about 500 or 600 people and they lived all scattered about. To get to some houses you had to cross fields and jump over stone walls. Before, there were midwives and a man who would help women give birth. I knew one who was gay \u2014 everyone wanted him because he had such a gentle way with women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art of Assisting Births in Ancient Rapa Nui<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The woman would sit on a man’s knees or would crouch down and the man would hold her from behind. With a clean cloth in his hands, he would hold the area between the vagina and the anus so it wouldn’t tear during childbirth. Another person would receive the baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first no one wanted me to attend to them because they didn’t know me. One of the old midwives, Hilaria Pakomio, helped me. She learned from me and I learned from her. We would go together in the night to the houses of the women in childbirth so they would let me attend to them \u2014 a tradition of communal care that echoes today in the rebirth of ancestral medicine<\/a> practiced on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicine, Leprosy, and Life-Saving Diagnoses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When any Chilean ship would arrive, everyone would get sick. My husband and an assistant would go to see the sick and give them injections in all the houses on the island. I stayed alone in the hospital, doing everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, a doctor who was an expert in leprosy came and taught me to do laboratory work. I would take nasal secretion samples from patients, note all the data, look through the microscope for Hansen’s Bacillus, and deliver the results to the doctor. He would study the results, examine the patients, and make decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rafael and Alberto Hotus did the bandaging and worked under the doctor’s instructions. In the 1960s, doctors from the continent began arriving who would decide that any spots were leprosy. Thank goodness that I did the examinations and could save many people from incorrect diagnoses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ana<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Choice of Identity: Being Rapa Nui<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I never knew my father, so after I married, I chose to use my mother’s surname because she raised me. I changed my name at the civil registry and became Antonia Rapahango.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father, who lived in Tahiti where he had started a third family with a Tahitian woman, wrote to me and scolded me. I know that I am half English, but I feel like a Rapa Nui person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Percy Edmunds died in 1957 in Tahiti, nearly 80 years old, and Victoria Rapahango on Easter Island in 1979, nearly half a century after her departure. Ana Rapahango was widowed and lives with her family on Rapa Nui \u2014 a testimony of service and belonging shared by other Rapa Nui women, such as Esperanza Pakarati Tepano<\/a> and Ana Mar\u00eda Arredondo<\/a>, whose stories are also part of the island’s living memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frequently Asked Questions About Ana Rapahango<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Who was Ana Rapahango?<\/h3>\n
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Ana Rapahango was a midwife and nurse on Rapa Nui who dedicated her life to medicine and community care. She was the daughter of British administrator Henry Percival Edmunds and Victoria Rapahango.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What was Ana Rapahango’s main contribution to Rapa Nui?<\/h3>\n
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Her greatest contribution was transforming prenatal and maternal care on the island, being one of the first formally trained midwives to work on Rapa Nui. She was also an expert in laboratory diagnostics, particularly in correctly identifying leprosy.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What kind of education did she receive?<\/h3>\n
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She received English education on Rapa Nui during her childhood (1906-1930s), learning values of discipline and precision. Later, at age 18, she was sent to Valpara\u00edso for formal midwifery training at the Hospital of Vi\u00f1a del Mar under the direction of Dr. Gustavo Fricke.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Why did she change her surname?<\/h3>\n
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Ana chose to use her mother’s surname, Rapahango, because her mother raised and educated her after her father left the island. This decision reflected her identity with Rapa Nui more than with her British heritage.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What was the role of ancient midwives on Rapa Nui?<\/h3>\n
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Ancient midwives assisted women during childbirth in their homes. A gay man she knew was especially valued for his empathy and skill. Hilaria Pakomio was a crucial mentor who taught her local practices while Ana taught her modern techniques.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What was the health situation on Rapa Nui during Ana’s time?<\/h3>\n
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The island faced significant challenges: a population of 500-600 people, limited access to doctors, high prevalence of leprosy (though many diagnoses were incorrect), and dependence on supply ships that arrived only once a year. The arrival of doctors in the 1960s changed the medical landscape.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n