Rapa Nui mythology, also known asPascuense mythology orEaster Island mythology, refers to thenativemyths,legends, andbeliefs of theRapa Nui people ofEaster Island in the south easternPacific Ocean.
According to Rapa Nui mythologyHotu Matuꞌa was the legendary first settler andariki mau ("supreme chief" or "king") ofEaster Island.[1]Hotu Matu'a and his two-canoe (or one double-hulled canoe) colonising party werePolynesians from the now unknown land ofHiva Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Mount Oave, Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Fenua. They landed atAnakena beach and his people spread out across the island, sub-divided it between clans claiming descent from his sons, and lived for more than a thousand years in their isolated island home at the southeastern tip of thePolynesian Triangle until the arrival of Dutch captainJacob Roggeveen, who arrived at the island in 1722.[2]
The most visible element in the culture was the production of massive statues calledmoai that represented deified ancestors. It was believed that the living had asymbiotic relationship with the dead where the dead provided everything that the living needed (health, fertility of land and animals, fortune, etc.), and the living through offerings provided the dead with a better place in the spirit world. Most settlements were located on the coast and moai were erected along the coastline, watching over their descendants in the settlements before them, with their backs toward the spirit world in the sea.[3]
TheTangata manu orbird-man cult succeeded the island'sMoai era when warfare erupted over dwindling natural resources and construction of statues stopped.[4] The deityMake-make was the chief god of the birdman cult. The cult declined after the island population adoptedCatholicism, though the birdman's popularity and memory were not erased and it is still present in the decoration of the island's church.[5]
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