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\u201cMy name is Iovani Haoa.\u00a0 The name Iovani, or Juan or John, was given to me by my stepfather, Iovani Rano, better known as Juan Tepano.\u00a0 My biological father was P\u00edo Haoa and my mother Catalina Hereveri, who died a few weeks after I was born.\u00a0 I am a descendant of one of the 7 branches of the Tupahotu clan, called the Tupahotu Nga Ruti.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many brothers and sisters I have because we were all raised separately by other people.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like to speak of the life we had before, because it was very sad.\u00a0 There were many needs and no comforts.\u00a0 In spite of that, I was raised well.\u00a0 I was taught not to steal, not to trespass on another\u2019s property and to ask for things when I wanted something (instead of just taking it).\u00a0 Today there are different types of young people.\u00a0 There are some who are very good.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter if they party a lot, as long as they have a home to go to. The most important thing is that they always respect their parents.\u00a0 In Anakena, there is a group of homeless young people with no family (known as \u201cyorgos\u201d). Something should be done to bring them back and rehabil\u00edtate them because it\u2019s not their fault, but the fault of the adults.<\/p>\n
The problem is that there is no work for them, but I think that it\u2019s always possible for them to cult\u00edvate the land.\u00a0 I taught my 12 children to work the land, planting and harvesting their food.\u00a0That\u2019s the way I raised them and that\u2019s the way we work today.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been married for 50 years to my wife, Olga Pakomio-Tekena, whom I love with all my \u201cInanga\u201d (heart).\u00a0 But about life as it used to be, it is better not to talk with people who aren\u2019t Rapanui because there aren\u2019t many good things to tell.<\/p>\n
About my work with the archaeologists Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy, I can tell you that I worked with them because I always wanted to learn everything that I could about the Island, walking over it, excavating and teaching others.\u00a0 If I had gone to the USA, Mulloy would have been my profesor, or if to Santiago, Figueroa would have been my teacher.\u00a0 But they came to the Island, so I was the teacher for those two.\u00a0 This is something that they both recognized.\u00a0 Just like the archaeologist Arne (Skjolsvold) of the Norwegian \u201cKontiki\u201d expedition.<\/p>\n
The restoration of the Ahu (platform) Koteriku at Tahai was done by Figueroa.\u00a0 He raised the Moai (statue).\u00a0 Then came a French group with two men and a woman who wanted us to make a \u201cPukao\u201d (headdress or hat) for the Moai at Ahu Koteriku, so Matu\u00b4a, the Arakis\u2019 father and I made one quickly because they were leaving in a month.\u00a0 We got the \u201cHani Hani\u201d(a porous red volcanic stone) from Orito hill, although the original \u201cPukao\u201d were made of \u201cHiti Rau\u201d (a stronger stone).\u00a0 It only took us four days to finish it and we put the hat on the Moai.\u00a0 The French people left.\u00a0 We heard later that they died in an airplane accident.<\/p>\n
Figueroa told me that\u00a0 Mulloy was coming to remove the Pukao from the Moai because it was modern, but I told him,\u00a0 \u201c…If you remove it, I\u2019m going home and I won\u2019t help you any more…\u201d, so they left it where it is.\u00a0 Afterward the Council of Elders, which had 36 members, decided to replace the eyes.\u00a0When they were placed in the statue, the old one revived.\u00a0 I know that there is a body buried below the \u201cPaina\u201d (a ceremonial circle of stones) that is found at that Ahu.\u00a0 It was in a pine box, so we assumed that it had come from the old church at Vaihu (around 1870 ).\u00a0 I think that the body was of the person who was in charge of the \u201cpaina\u201d ceremonies in honor of the dead.\u00a0 In those days, they buried people in the place where they worked.<\/p>\n
In 1938, when I was young, I saw a \u201cpaina\u201d ceremony with my father Juan Tepano, and later as a adult I did one in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
There was an enormous figure made of \u201cMahute\u201d (paper mulberry), used as a cape for the \u201cHeva\u201d (the eulogist who praised the dead).\u00a0There was also the \u201cPera\u201d which was when a person was buried, it was marked by a stick with a feather on the point which was placed in the middle of the tomb to indicate that the place was \u201cTapu\u201d (sacred and forbidden) so that people couldn\u2019t walk there.\u00a0 The person in charge of turning the dead bodies left on the Ahu so that the liquids wouldn\u2019t accumulate on just one side while the body dried was called the \u201cTimo\u201d o \u201cTimo Rara Koreha\u201d because it was similar to cooking a \u201cKoreha\u201d (eel), turning it over several times so that it cooks evenly.\u00a0 On the Ahu the bodies weren\u2019t covered by earth so that they could ventilate and dry well.\u00a0 The stones that were placed around them had to be small to avoid rats getting in.\u00a0When the body was dry and clean, the family of the departed was called to bury him.\u00a0 If no one came, the bones were burned in a place behind the Ahu that was set aside for this.\u00a0 \u201cAvanga\u201d is the name of the place where the bones were left, just like a cemetery is today.<\/p>\n
When I worked at the excavations at Ahu \u201cNau Nau\u201d at Anakena, I saw that on one end of the Ahu there were three \u201cPu\u201d (holes) called \u201cPu Haka Hetu\u201d with three different depths.<\/p>\n
They had a \u201cKeho\u201d (flagstone) at the base which, when you struck it, emited a sound\u00a0 that was so deep it could be heard in the entire Island, even to \u201cVaitea\u201d or \u201cHanga Nui\u201d\u00a0Each \u201cPu\u201d produced a different sound and the people would sing with them.\u00a0 I went to talk with the Mayor so that they would reopen them, but he wouldn\u2019t permit it.\u00a0 Although they are covered, the holes are still there.\u00a0 I can say that we, the Rapanui, know that the Moai are ours, but most don\u2019t know why they were made.\u00a0 I taught my children what a Moai is and those who wanted to learn more could come me.\u00a0 I taught part of my knowledge to Sergio Rapu.\u00a0 He can tell the things that I know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2000 Juan Haoa, 76 years old, spoke of his memories of the past and his work in archaeology, in an interview recorded in Rapanui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":23,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonials"],"yoast_head":"\n