Tractors decorated with leafs pull floats with carved statues.
In this second part of Tales of the South Pacific, we’ll visit Easter Island’s Tapati Festival - one of the highlights of our life! The gods smiled on us when we booked our trip to remote Easter Island. Totally by fluke it turns out that we are here for the grand finale of Rapa Nui's annual Tapati Festival.
This huge festival celebrates the local culture, and honors the ancestors who created the famous Moai statues.
The locals prepare all year for this week long event. Young men and women sign up as candidates, representing their extended families or tribes. Contests test their skills and strength. One contest is sliding down an enormous slope on handmade sled made from palm branches.
A carved statue.
The participants have to sing, dance, cook, make crafts and much more. Not only are the candidates themselves tested and judged, but their entire tribe which supports them is also part of the contests. The tribes dance and sing, make costumes and create amazing floats for the final parade. We had noticed people in the yard of a house next to our small hotel. They were carving something that resembled a First Nations’ totem - a wooden figure sitting on a flatbed trailer. They proudly told us this would be part of their family’s float for the parade this year. We couldn’t wait to see the parade!
How amazing to be here to witness this authentic, grass roots Polynesian festival. We walked to the main street around 5 PM. Floats on long flat beds pulled by farm tractors, where parked all along the upper end of the street that runs from one end of town down to the sea. The trailer beds were decorated with greens, mostly palm leaves. But it was the carvings on these trailers that blew us away. People had spent weeks carving huge statues of mermaids, warriors, turtles and more. These are similar to North American totem poles, polished and oiled or painted. At first we thought that, surely, the same carvings were used each year. But no, we were assured that they are newly created each year! Hundreds of people were milling about. To our amazement, all locals and even some tourists, were decked out in traditional costumes: feathers, paint, and a pair of coconuts - if that. Many women were completely naked except for paint. The paint resembles henna mixed with sand. Entire bodies were painted brown with white designs all over: swirls, lines, dots, symbols - including the face. The designs reminded me of Australian Aboriginal painting. Even the hair was often covered in this 'mud' and made to stand up straight. Women mostly had feathers or palm fonds in their hair. The men only wore a loin cloth, or simply some leaf wrapped about their private parts... infants and children were all painted and decked out in feathers. Little boys brandished their wooden swords and even tiny girls wore little shells as bra's.
When we asked what time the parade would start, the answer was invariable "Maybe at 6, maybe by 7..." So we waited, strolling along the street and not having enough eyes to take it all in. At one point I felt I was in a Disney movie about the South Pacific, but this was so real, so authentic. So totally Polynesian. Nothing on the floats was made of plastic or anything artificial. Just local wood and greens. Only the preschool had a gigantic fish or their float made of recycled bottle caps - likely recovered from the beaches.
Once every one and their full entourage was judged, a king and queen were announced and then the parade slowly started to roll down the main street. A float would come by, followed by a huge horde of people in their body paint and feathers. Suddenly everything would stop and the people started singing and dancing. There were ukuleles, a harmonica, guitars and drums. They sang these wonderful, catchy Polynesian songs, dancing and swaying arms and hips. Such energy!
Then the parade slowly moved on again and another couple floats came by before it all stopped again and another dance and song erupted. By 9 PM the float wasn't even at the end of main street. The sun went down, the palm trees swayed in a gentle breeze. The ocean lapped the shore as it had for thousands of years. Tirelessly they danced and sang, everyone happy and beaming. There was no drinking, no drunkenness, no pick pocketing, not even many tourists. It was amazing to revel in this happy atmosphere. The joy and uniqueness of it all brought a lump to my throat as we were surrounded by dancers and singers of all ages.
By ten o'clock a full moon shone down on it all. The king and queen for the coming year were still waving and smiling, music and laughter and song was still wafting out over the white capped waves of the Pacific, as we finally turned our backs on it all and walked to our hotel. The next morning at breakfast our waitress was sleep eyed and admitted she had gone straight from partying back to work at 6 AM...
