Wilson's Almanac on the Bird Man of Rapa Nui

Related terms: Rapa Nui Easter Island Birdman Orongo rongo 
petroglyphs manu tara meke meke moai statues Polynesia sooty tern

The Bird Man of Rapa Nui

Easter Island's September ritual

By Pip Wilson

 

 

September Rapa Nui (Easter Island): arrival of manu tara Rapa Nui, known also as Easter Island (Spanish Isla de Pascua) is an island in the south Pacific Ocean, west and slightly north of Santiago, Chile and part of the territory of Chile (Valparaíso Region). It has a population of only about 2,000 locals and an unknown number of ethnographers. The small (119 sq km, or 46 sq mi), isolated island (about 2,000 kilometres from the next nearest inhabited island) is famous for its numerous mysterious stone statues (moai) located along the coastlines. It is home of the only written language of Oceania, a hieroglyphic script known as Rongorongo, which has never been deciphered despite the work of generations of linguists. The origins of the Rapa Nui people are only slowly coming to light. Thor Heyerdahl (Easter Island: The Mystery Solved) proposed that they are of Peruvian descent, which he deduced from a similarity between Rapa Nui and Incan stonework. It has even been suggested by some, such as the long discredited Erich von Daniken, that Rapa Nui is the remnant of a lost continent, or its culture the result of some extra-terrestrial influence. Modern scholarship, however, indicates discovery of the island by Polynesians in about 400 CE, led, according to legend, by Hotu Matua. September in Rapa Nui, until about the 1860s, was an important time for the Rapa Nui people, in an annual custom since lost to time: the springtime ceremonies of the cult (or religion) of the Bird Man. This custom was recorded in the 1920s, when it was still remembered by some Rapa Nui old-timers. The Bird Man cult might have been practised during the time of the moai cult; however, it eventually became the predominate religion on the island and was still in practice till as late as1866-67. The greatest annual event was in September with the arrival of the manu tara, a migratory tern. (This cult is the basis of Kevin Costner’s  fairly undistinguished and only loosely historical 1994 movie, Rapa Nui.)

The Bird Man of Rapa Nui   Easter Islanders, 1860

Because Rapa Nui is one of very few landfalls in the world’s largest ocean, during the winter months, large numbers of sea-birds in great numbers visit the island to lay their eggs and raise their young.  The manu tara (Sooty terns, Sterna fuscata oahuensis) nest at the top of a steep cliff on Motu Nui (‘Big Islet’) the farthest of the three islets off the shores of Rano Kau. Each September the young male servants gathered, each competing to take the first egg of the season back to his master. Men representing the various clan chiefs would train in the crater on Motu Nui, The men would then set off for Motu Nui on reed rafts before the arrival of the terns and wait in a cave. Each of them would then climb onto the rock and try to snatch a freshly-laid egg. The first man to swim back through shark-infested waters to the main island, climb the cliff, and hand an unbroken egg to his clan chief at the ceremonial village of Orongo was accorded high honours, because he had won the approval of the great spirit Meke Meke. Probably most of the islanders were there to cheer him on. Meanwhile, the dejected losers would slash themselves with blades. The greatest esteem, however, went to the clan chief, who would change his name to Tangata Manu (Bird Man) for the coming year. He would also shave his head and live apart from the others in strict taboo until the next manu tara festival, but treated royally for that year. He was served by the one who brought him the egg, who was not allowed to touch anything with the hand that had held it. There are still many petroglyphs in the vicinity of Orongo that record the gratitude of the egg-race contestants to the great spirit Meke Meke for his benign influence and protection. In 1862 slave traders removed most of the healthy Rapa Nui overseas, including the king, and within only a year the population was without leadership, and decimated by disease and abduction. Soon after, Christian missionaries came and in a very short time, much of the indigenous culture, including indigenous tattooing practices, was eradicated. Today, the true stories of the Bird Man, like those of the big statues, are almost as much a mystery to the people of Rapa Nui as to the rest of us.

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