InvestigationMany historic residents of Rapa Nui in the South Pacific believe that the influx of "mainlanders" from Chile threatens their culture.
It’s a land at the end of the world, the most isolated inhabited place on the planet, a needlehead in the middle of the Pacific. The nearest inhabited island, Pitcairn, is 2,075 kilometers to the west. The coasts of Chile, the trusteeship country, are even more distant: 3,525 kilometers, this time to the east. And in the middle, therefore, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, 7,750 residents and a little over a thousand, these stone faces with little known origins that the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda painted as "Statues that the night built / and ginned in a closed circle / to be seen only from the sea".
In the shadow of these monumental sculptures live the Rapanuis, Polynesians who once landed on these shores thanks to an equally intriguing science of navigation. Since their first contact with Westerners, in the XVIIIe century, they suffered various guardianships, led some revolts and almost disappeared, but they managed to survive, and with them their culture, which subsists through language, songs, dances and wood carving. But many islanders believe they are facing a new threat today: the arrival of a population whose presence, to hear them, calls into question their way of life. More than tourists (120,000 in 2017), the reproach targets the Chilean compatriots from the continent, the "contis" as they are nicknamed here.
The subject was raised during the Constituent Assembly, held in late November 2019, in the capital, Hanga Roa. Fifty Rapanuis gathered there to determine the message to send to Chile, which, faced with the social crisis in the country, has started the process of drafting a new Constitution. On the microphone, this summer day, several speakers liven up the debate in the Rapanui language, while the lazy blades of a fan struggle to cool the room.
A woman still ends up speaking in Spanish, the official language of the island: "I have lived here for over forty years, and I have always confined myself to an observer position. " Ana-Maria Arredondo has light gray hair, cut short, and speaks in a soft and caring voice. "I am the mother and grandmother of rapanuis children. A few months ago, my situation changed. I received an authorization to stay on the island. Temporary authorization, for one year. So, this evening, I would simply like to ask a question: what is the place of the continental integrated into the community? We have no voice, no space to express ourselves. "
