Rapa Nui (English: Easter Island; Spanish: Isla de Pascua), is a Polynesian island and special territory of the South American country of Chile. It is world famous for its moai, the nearly 1,000 large humanoid statues carved from volcanic stone that are found around the island.
Likely settled by Polynesians in the 12th century, the population grew to 15,000 by the 17th century, only to collapse following environmental degradation and overpopulation. By the time Europeans arrived in 1722, there were only a couple thousand islanders remaining. Wracked by disease and slave raiders in the 19th century, Chile annexed the island in 1888. The island was cleared of palm trees for settlements, and was rented out as a sheep farm until 1953. Despite this, Rapa Nui is still home to much unique and diverse wildlife. It is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world, with a distance of 2,075 km (1,289 mi) to the nearest inhabited island.
Moai
Contrary to any works that portray the moai as ancient, the statues were built between the 13th and 15th century CE. In the Rapa Nui language, moai simply means "statue."
More often than not, the fictional equivalent is just the extremely large moai head and neck, as opposed to a full-body moai; the most widely-known real-life moai are those on the slope of Rano Raraku crater, which are full-bodied statues buried up to their shoulders or necks in the ground. These moai were the most famous (and impressive) largely because they were the only statues that weren't toppled over in the 18th century, though many moai have since been re-erected. The pukao (a hat- or topknot-like adornment) is rarely seen, as are the coral eyes many of the statues once possessed. The statues as a whole are far from proportional, with the heads making up a considerable portion of their overall height, which varies considerably from statue to statue.
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In the 1920s and The '30s, the British occult writer James Churchward became fixated on Polynesia as the remnants of the proposed lost continent of Mu, which he believed was somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, leaving only its tallest mountains above the surfacenote . The moai of Rapa Nui, as well as the ruins of Nan Madol (another Pacific Island, now part of Micronesia), became key fixtures of his theories. Even though Churchward's name has been largely forgotten, his theories persist in pop culture, and most fictional depictions of the moai will link them to Mu, Ancient Astronauts, or some other bit of occult lore.
Rapa Nui in fiction
- The Incredible Hulk (1968) #261, "Encounter on Easter Island!" involves a showdown between the Hulk and the Absorbing Man, after the Hulk washes up on the island's shores and discovers that the Absorbing Man had been using it as a hideout.
- Bandai's animation division "Emotion" has used Moai
in its Vanity Plate since the 1980s.
- Rapa-Nui (1994) is a very loose retelling of the island's societal collapse and how the moai statues came to be.
- Gargoyles: The episode "Sentinel" takes place on the island, where an alien sentry is convinced that the Gargoyles are enemies of Earth. The moai are revealed to be carved in his likeness.
- In a 1980s Mickey Mouse comics that also stars Mickey's alien friend Eega Beeva, the Moai are revealed to be a race of humanoid aliens. They are allergic to chlorophyll and were venerated by the island's ancient inhabitants, who built giant statues in their likeness. The aliens used the statues to hide emitters for their eventual return to Earth.
- The Blake and Mortimer animated series has a two-parter episode titled The Secret of Easter Island. It's an original story with a mystery around, you guessed it, the moai.
- Godzilla vs. Megalon invokes Churchward's theory by linking the moai to the Underwater City of Seatopia.
- In Doctor Who, a throwaway reference from the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) suggests that the moai were actually portraits of him.
- In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin once decorated the front yard with a row of snow sculptures loosely resembling the moai.
What's wrong with Easter Island? I like Easter Island.
- Rapa Nui appears as a city-state in Civilization VI. Forming an alliance with them gives the player the ability to construct moai as a unique tile improvement, which grants culture points.
- Histeria! episode "Really Oldies but Goodies" did a segment on Rapanui, which was divided into two songs; the first had the Kids Chorus sing about how the island was discovered, and the second was about the moai sung by the moai themselves. At the end, the moai remind viewers not to believe every crackpot theory on their origins...as a UFO drops more moai onto the island.
Miscellaneous
- Seat and main town: Hanga Roa
- Population: 7,750
- Area: 163.6 km (63.2 sq mi)
- Currency: Peso ($) (CLP)
- Country calling code: 56
