Easter Island Revisited

EASTER ISLAND REVISITED

With its impressive archaeological sites, this remote Polynesian outpost has a richness of local knowledge and culture that is a product of its very isolation.

The mysterious moai of Easter Island.

Guests to Easter Island are welcomed in the traditional manner by people with a heritage borne by Polynesian ancestors who sailed voyaging canoes across vast areas of the Pacific Ocean.

Deadly clan rivalries of past times have become friendly competition as runners race with heavy loads during Rapa Nui week.

Completely covered with red pigment held sacred by her Rapa Nui ancestors, this young girl from Easter Island prepares to participate in a re-enactment of the landing of Hotu Matu'a. A thousand and more years before Columbus, the traditional belief is that the chieftain loaded canoes with artisans and crops and set out from "a great island to the west." After weeks at sea his party came ashore and settled Easter Island.

A Rapa Nui wedding between a local bride and a groom from Chile. Since most islanders are related and local incest laws are very strict, many Rapa Nui seek mates from the Chilean mainland.

A local fisherman with a yellow tail caught off the island's rocky cliffs.

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(E-mail: jane@janeresture.com -- Rev. 8th December 2006)