SCHOLARLY CRUISE TAKES BROTHER LEO TO MYSTERIOUS EASTER ISLAND

We sailed from Punta Arenas on schedule. Rather than plunge directly into the Pacific, however, the captain decided to sail the first day along the coast of Chile so we could experience the Chilean fjords.
For years, I thought all the fjords were in Norway, but in later years, experienced the fjords of Yugoslavia and now those of Chile, set off by the snow capped Andes in the background.
We hugged the shoreline most of the day and, only in evening, crossed the coastal waters and the Humble current into the South Pacific. Magellan was the first to name the ocean "Mar Pacifico," but it was a miss call for him, at least. The ocean proved anything but "calm" as a violent coastal story destroyed his ship, killing Magellan and all aboard. We, too, experienced rough waters as we turned into the Pacific.
That was also my memory of leaving San Francisco for the Pacific on the USS Mount McKinley. I was seasick then, and was seasick again for two days. Then, it was all over for the entire trip.
Our first destination was historic Easter Island, a minuscule island outpost annexed by Chile from Spain without protest in 1888, located 2,350 miles from the coast of Chile and renamed in Spanish “Isla de Pascua.” It was a Dutch admiral, Jacob Roggeveen, who originally came upon this small triangular land mass, an island eight miles wide, fourteen miles long, with volcanoes at each of its corners. Because he discovered the island on Easter Sunday, he recorded it as Easter Island.
David Stanley in his South Pacific Handbook observes, "No other populated island on earth is as isolated as this," (p.263). We would disprove that statement when we next visited Pitcairn Island, but for the moment his remark applied. Isolated, but not unknown.
Some people know of Easter Island from Thor Heyerdahl and his "Kon Tiki” adventures (1947). Later, he wrote a very controversial book, “Aku Aku: The Secret of Easter Island” (1958), in which he propounded his theories about the origins of the Rapa Nui peoples and the mysteries of Easter Island.
More likely, you saw the Kevin Kostner movie, “Rapa Nui,” which was actually filmed on the island. The movie projects the tribal tensions between the "long ears" and the "short ears" and the "Bird Man" cult. The story is a contrived tale of love across tribal lines and the presumed impossible demands placed on the male to "qualify" to win the girl.
Easter Island has a population of 2,770 and almost all of them found themselves in the movie. I first saw it in Poland in 1994 with several of my students. Six years later, I was standing on Orongo, the southern cape volcanic cliff peering out at Motu Nui, the off-shore island so vital to the Bird Man cult and central to the film. And I was with Edwardo, who served as the local technical director to Kostner.
What was Easter Island to the Dutch, or Rapa Nui, “great island," to the Polynesians, was later named San Carlos by the Spanish and today is the Isla de Pascua to the Chileans. The island was called by the native peoples T. Pito O Te Henua or "the navel of the world.” When the good admiral discovered them, the islanders were unaware that there were any other people in the world.
What Admiral Roggeveen discovered has fascinated and confounded archeologists and historians for two centuries. He found some 1,000 massive stone carved heads with their sphinx-like faces, pursed lips, tilted noses, elongated ears and blind eyes. These carvings, he concluded, were clearly beyond the technology of the natives who greeted him. Some statues were sixty feet in height with cylindrical ten-ton hair pieces, knobs, or topknots of red stone, contrasting with the black stone of the faces.
For two centuries, experts have attempted to unravel the mystery of these “moai” (figures) and the “ahu” (tables) on which they originally rested. At the same time, Easter Island is the only South Pacific island where writing developed. However, the strange hieroglyphics on the "rongo rongo" tablets have never been decoded. We brought no answers, but we came for two days to examine the evidence, hear the theories and ask the age-old questions.
What do the moai represent? How were they moved from the quarries to sites around the island? Why should there be some 100 moai unfinished? Why was the work in process interrupted? Why did the Rapa Nui people disappear and to where did they go? We were to explore the key sites and hear the theories. On ship, we had studied the academic theories; now it was time to hear from the locals.
By using radiocarbon, paleontology, pollen traces and linguistic analysis, scholars have reached some conclusions about the mystery of Easter Island.
Polynesian explorers apparently arrived and settled there in approximately 800 AD. They became known as the Rapa Nui peoples. The moai were not gods, but rather tributes to ancestors. Like in our own cemeteries of Allamakee County, many plots have "monuments" in addition to head stones. These moai head stones reflected power, influence, prestige and importance. They reflected a certain tribal competition, i.e. "See, my ancestors were more important than yours" syndrome.
The islanders lived on fish, porpoises, nuts, native birds, garden produce and chickens. The Rapa Nui reproduced to the point that eventually between 10,000 and 20,000 lived on this small island, or about 100 persons per sq. mile. Soon they stripped the island of trees and food sources. Somehow, rats invaded the area, bred and thrived abundantly, then eventually chewed the roots and sprouts of anything that did not regenerate. By 800 AD, a severe ecological disruption was underway.
During the years of abundance, large numbers of the islanders were engaged in carving, not farming. The peak period for the stone carvings was around 1200 AD, with nearly none quarried after 1500 AD. The moai cult itself seemed to have disappeared by 1600 AD. The density of population, denuding of the forests, erosion of the soil, and neglect of farming led to acute food shortages. By 1500 AD, porpoises and native birds had disappeared.
What the specialists perceive is that the ecological disequilibrium led to the collapse of the ancient governance structure and gave rise to a warrior class. Once one ancestor-related group began to attack, another civil order disappeared; chiefs became more ceremonial and warriors dominated island life. The Bird Man cult emerged as a way to give spiritual identity to warriors. The division into antagonistic groups, resource scarcity and warfare eventually led to cannibalism, somewhere around 1600 AD. During this period of social disintegration, the moai cult disappeared, stones were toppled, headpieces severed, and altars destroyed. Each group attempted to erase the ancestor record of the other.
Another tragedy befell the remaining Rapa Nui in 1862-63, when some 2,000 were captured by Peruvian slavers and sold into captivity to work the mines of Peru. The French Catholic bishop of Tahiti appealed to the French representative in Lima, asking him to intercede with the authorities in Peru to halt and forbid slave trading. The intervention was successful in that the remaining 110 Rapa Nui, representing 36 families, were returned to the island. However, the ship was infested with small pox, killing all but 18 persons. By 1800, the ancient culture had disappeared, and when Chile annexed the island in 1888, there was a population of only 100.
Today, the island is home to some 2,770 people, mostly Polynesian or Spanish, with a great number of different bloodlines created by intermarriage or liaisons with visiting sailors.
Our shore excursion visited the five major sites of mystery. The first was Ahu Akiui, where Professor William Molloy of the University of Wyoming, who has spent his professional life working on Easter Island, has restored seven moai. He came first with Thor Heyerdahl, then returned regularly to study the mystery of Easter Island. His restoration efforts have proven critical for all subsequent work of restoration and understanding.
Next, we visited Rano Raraku, the quarry from which these ancient sculptures were stone chiseled from the mountainside. We saw some 70 moai still standing and another thirty or more toppled or submerged in the ground.
This visit was mountainside climbing. But when we reached our starting point, enterprising islanders were there with items to sell, including one lady with ice-cold classic or light Coke ($2) or Budweiser ($3). She did a good business. Other tourist items were available, including t-shirts; carvings in wood, stone or sand; and spoons, key rings or postcards. Prices were established and uniform, although bargaining for price became the spirit of their spontaneous marketplace.
The third visit was to Ahu Tangariki, the island's most impressive site. There, 15 statues are arranged in single file. A tidal wave in 1960 unsettled these monumental carvings and tossed them about like cordwood. They have been returned to upright positions by large cranes, which raises the question: How did the Rapa Nui raise them originally with no comparable equipment? These are the statues most photographed on postcards, in magazines and in film - my own included.
Orongo, located on the south cape, is not only the site for the Bird Man cult, but also the area of some 40 caves where people lived in the times of island unrest and war. This area is the only national park, as well as the only site with a fee ($5).
Our last stop was a small oceanside area just north of the city of Hanga Roa called Ahu Tahai. There, we witnessed the only moai facing the sea. All others face inward. The theory is that these represent the island chiefs awaiting the reincarnation of Hotu Matua, the first king of the island. Here, too, is the only moai with eyes - recently cemented into place for tourist photos!
Later that day, I returned to the town proper to visit the parish church of Santa Cruz. All the statues are traditional carvings, dark polished wood with Rapa Nui features - long ears, elongated faces, sharp noses and full lips. Particularly striking is Our Lady of Rapa Nui. The church itself stands at the head of the main street so that, from the road, visitors can see the open doors of the church. The residents are 90% Roman Catholic, with Father Jose Navarrete Hauri presiding as pastor. As an accommodation, he offered mass in English, as he said, "So I can practice my English.”
My original intent was to stay on the island overnight, but I later changed my mind and went back by zodiac to the OE. The following morning, I took the earliest tender to shore, where I attended church, visited the post office and engaged in a minor shopping trip, only to return to the ship by noon.
I missed the big excitement.
Working in my cabin, dinner in the dinning room and early to bed, I was unaware of the worst tropical storm in 30 years raging outside. Only the next morning, when I rose early to find we had not sailed on schedule, did I discover that the storm was so severe that the ship could not operate, neither the tenders nor the zodiac. That left 400 people stranded on the island, wind-swept and water-soaked.
Fortunately, locals opened their homes, hotels that had been closed, and other shelters to house and feed our shipmates. People returned to the OE the next morning, somewhat water-logged, but with interesting and sometimes amusing tales to tell. Of course, there were others who found it neither interesting nor amusing.
Easter Island was our first "Forgotten Frontier.” Indeed, none of us will forget our visit to the "navel of the world.”