Rapa Nui: The Lost People by Ben Llados
I’m sure you’ve seen the rock statues with the big heads. Whether it’s an aesthetic Pinterest photo of them or a dank meme with an emoji of them, Easter Island’s statues have grown to fame for their unique shape, but people tend to forget about the history of Easter Island.
The people of Rapa Nui inhabited the island long before Euro-Americans stepped foot on the island, and are now extinct without any proven cause. Robert Macmillan’s Magazine shows some of the first initial interactions between British settlers and the locals of Rapa Nui. Through this source, we are able to paint a picture of how Rapa Nui would become an important part of Western history, and some of the darker secrets that help us discover what led to the downfall of the civilization of the Rapa Nui.
Before we dive into what was published, it’s important to know who published it and why. Macmillan’s Magazine was a monthly British magazine published from 1859 to 1907 by Alexander Macmillan; this specific article was published in 1869 following the British expansion of the coast of Australia. Macmillan’s work provided much of the United Kingdom with information from all across the island and beyond (Uffelman). During the 19th century, the British started exploring land expanding from their original colonies in the Pacific Ocean. They were driven by the curiosity of what is out there in the unexplored Pacific, but also with the intent to colonize. This naturally led the people of the United Kingdom to be curious about what they were finding. MacMillan’s narrative offers a firsthand glimpse into the culture they learned, the places they visited, and the stories they heard along the way. What makes this trip to Easter Island interesting is that it happened after Cook’s first discovery of the island, and before Euro-Americans settled on the island. It provides us with a good middle ground which can help us understand what Rapa Nui was like during its downfall.
The magazine starts by discussing the very first British settler, and their experiences: Captain James Cook and his anchoring. Cook was a captain in the Royal Navy, anchoring down in 1774, five years before his passing in Hawai’i. Where he first set foot on the island is now called Cook’s Bay, and it was also where the Topaze – the British settlers whom Macmillan is writing about – start their story. First, they were met by a group of islanders who shared their first bit of culture: “On the way our hosts surrounded us, offering for barter little wooden figures, and peculiar implement shaped like canoe paddles, but used only in their dances, and called “rapa.” Occasionally they would burst into a loud chant, in time to which they kept up a jumping dance, their arms working about, and the “nua,” a garment tied loosely across their shoulders, flying out from their naked bodies in the wind.” (Macmillan, pg. 449). The culture was what drove Rapa Nui, it was a small group of islanders who all worked together to support each other. The dance they did was intended to celebrate their history and hard work through the generations. The further the story goes on, the less comfortable the Rapa Nui were with the settlers. We see this pattern throughout the Pacific; look at Polynesia for example. Polynesia was borderless before settlers, specifically, Captain Cook’s mapping set boundaries from culture to culture: “Making non-sense of all national and economic boundaries, borders that have been defined only recently, crisscrossing an ocean that had been boundless for ages before Captain Cook’s apotheosis.” (Hau’ofa, pg. 151) Hau’ofa is a native of Polynesia, he lives firsthand in a world where settlers have taken over their culture. We see this in the interactions between islands, but more importantly the interactions on the islands: “In Papua New Guinea, European males were addressed and referred to as “masters” and workers as “boys.” Even indigenous policemen were called “police boys.” This use of language helped to reinforce the colonially established social stratification along ethnic divisions.” (Hau’ofa, pg. 149). This tends to be a pattern with Pacific Islands, look at Hawai’i as another example: “Remarkably, Hawaiʻi seems to have been out of direct contact with outsiders until the arrival of the Englishman Captain James Cook and his crew four or five centuries later, in 1778.” (Chang, pg. 5). Similarly to Hawai’i, soon after settlers arrived Easter Island’s islanders started to obey orders from Euro-Americans, eventually leading to them being taken over.
The culture when Macmillan got there was strong, but there were a few signs of decline in the population. When mentioned, the Moai statues were usually either vandalized, fallen, or broken. At the main farm, the gardens were being destroyed by the trade winds that were once covered by trees. As of today, zero of the original Rapa Nui natives still inhabit the island, it’s only Chileans. There are many theories out there, but one of them is that they drove themselves to the ground around the late 19th century. Macmillan’s magazine supports this because it has proof that since Captain Cook set foot on the island, the geography of the island had been terraformed due to an overexploitation of the materials. One example of this is their original idea of the island: “Not a tree was to be seen, and except a few red patches on the hills, and a few spots green with sugar-cane or sweet potato, all was brown with tufted grass.” (Macmillan, pg. 449). The original picture that Cook painted of the island was green with a forest full of tall green palm trees, he described it as a ‘tropical paradise.’ Without the trees, the trade winds started to pick up and destroy farms, leaving islanders with little to no food. “Captain Bornier said they eat their only meal of cooked potato in the evening, and with this, they still drink salt water at times.” (Macmillan, pg. 450). While they did overexploit their island materials, another theory supported by the text is that Euro-Americans enslaved many of the natives. During their time talking to the islanders at Hanga-roa – the first town they stumbled upon – they found out that “islanders had lived free from foreign interference until about 1859 or 1860, when six or seven ships from the “brutal” Republic of Peru made a descent, and carried off 1,200 or 1,500 people, of whom only three had ever returned.” (Macmillan, pg. 449-50). At this point in time, that was almost 75% of the population of Rapa Nui, who were just shipped off to Peru. This created a bitter feeling among all foreigners, and the next ship to land, a French missionary, was killed and eaten by the Rapa Nui. Where we are today, there are two main theories as to what happened to the people of Rapa Nui. The first theory is that the civilization drove itself to the ground because of the lack of resources. This is supported by Macmillan’s article explaining how the deforestation and overexploitation of land forced them to only eat one meal a day. The second theory is that the civilization was conquered by Euro-Americans. This is supported by Macmillan’s article because of the stories they were told about settlers before them.
So why does all of this matter in the context of the world today, specifically for us as Americans? Well, the story of Rapa Nui is important because it is a perfect example of the broader impact of colonialism on indigenous commutes across the Pacific. The story of Rapa Nui is mirrored in the histories of countless indigenous tribes who faced exploitation and displacement because of Westernization. When Indigenous tribes have stood their ground, violence has always been the answer for Euro-Americans. Look at the Pacific Northwest for example: “Chief Factor John McLoughlin decided that the Hudson’s Bay Company needed to employ a policy of retributive violence against Indians who murdered company employees.” (Reid, pg. 171). This is just one of the thousands of tribes who were forced to either assimilate or were dispossessed of their land and killed. In North America especially the repercussions of colonialism are still felt today. One of the themes when it comes to Pacific islands that keeps coming back is the loss of culture. Rapa Nui’s people are extinct, but the culture still lives on. The Moai statues and the revitalization of traditional practices honor the legacy of the island’s ancestors and contribute to a broader movement of cultural revitalization. In an era where education doesn’t teach the right side of history, it’s important to educate yourself about the wrongdoings that Euro-Americans have had. As a kid growing up going to public school his whole life in the Pacific Northwest, we were taught the opposite. We were taught about Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest from the lens that we were friends. I wish that I was taught the truth instead of having to find out later through my own research. It’s unbelievable that this side of history has been neglected, as it may be up there with some of the largest genocides in history, clearing an entire continent of its people. At Easter Island, the preservation of the culture, the statues, and the stories that have been passed down by generations leave us with a good image of the Rapa Nui.
Macmillan’s article serves as a critical text that can tell us the full story of the Rapa Nui. Telling us the midpoint between discovery and downfall, the reading is underlooked in history. The story lets us see the cultural resilience, the colonial encounters, and the environmental degradation that eventually led to the extinction of their people, answering the questions about how the Moai statues still survive today. As we reflect on the rise and fall of Rapa Nui, I continue to ask myself one question: How can we move forward to a world where we value education about indigenous communities and celebrate cultural diversity?
Works Cited
Barman J. David A. Chang. The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration. The American Historical Review. 2017;122(3):830-830. doi:10.1093/ahr/122.3.830
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/273cgt/cdi_openaire_primary_doi_dd73dc8ed274ac6f4451bff43e9f82d8
Hau‘ofa E. Our Sea of Islands. Lagoonscapes. 2023;3(2). doi:10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2023/02/002
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/273cgt/cdi_doaj_primary_oai_doaj_org_article_88636df3047644af914792ca7bf73b1d
Reid JL. The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs. 1st ed. Yale University Press; 2015.
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/273cgt/cdi_proquest_ebookcentral_EBC3421613
R. S. Rapa-Nui, or Easter Island. Macmillan’s Magazine. 1869;21:449-.
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?context=PC&vid=01USC_INST:01USC&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&tab=Everything&docid=cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1310342492
Uffelman LK. Macmillan’s Magazine 1859-1907: “No Flippancy or Abuse Allowed.” Victorian Periodicals Review. 2006;39(1):88-90. doi:10.1353/vpr.2006.0035
https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/273cgt/cdi_openaire_primary_doi_31067e609bb699709ddf1a535ae7c96b