Hanga Roa

Polynesian voyagers settled Rapa Nui, most likely from Mangareva or the Marquesas; a 2007 study placed their arrival around the year 1200. Over the following centuries islanders carved hundreds of moai from the quarry at Rano Raraku. Europeans reached the island on Easter Sunday 1722, and in the 19th century slave raids, disease and the collapse of traditional leadership devastated the population. Catholic missionaries arrived in 1864, and in 1868 the British ship HMS Topaze anchored off Hanga Roa.

When Chile annexed the island in 1888, the Rapa Nui were forced into Hanga Roa and the rest of the land was leased for sheep farming, from the early 20th century to the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua, a subsidiary of Williamson-Balfour. Islanders were confined to the town and forbidden to leave it, and researchers have compared it to a ghetto; in 1914 it had just 250 people. The parish of Santa Cruz was founded in 1937 under Father Sebastian Englert, who preached in Rapa Nui. From 1953 to 1966 the navy controlled the island.

In 1966 a law created the Department of Easter Island, gave the islanders Chilean citizenship and the vote, and set up a municipality. An airstrip built at Mataveri led to the first commercial flights in 1967, and the village grew into a small town with a school, hotels, a bank and a hospital. The island became a special territory of Chile in 2007. It was closed to tourists from March 2020 to August 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in October 2022 a fire burned about 60 hectares and damaged some of the moai.

Hanga Roa is a Polynesian town within the Chilean state. The Rapa Nui language, an Eastern Polynesian language with similarities to Hawaiian and Tahitian, has survived, though most children now grow up speaking Spanish. Dance and music are central cultural expressions, with performances held around the island through the year.

The great event is the Tapati Rapa Nui, held since 1975 around the start of February. It is built around a competition between two clans, who earn points in dance, song, sport and traditional skills, and much of the island takes part. Church life also carries Rapa Nui identity: in the Holy Cross Church, islanders' songs and carvings are woven into Catholic worship, a fusion encouraged by Father Sebastian Englert, who translated devotions into Rapa Nui.

Land is the deepest issue. Rapa Nui with ancestral claims have occupied hotels and land in town to press their rights, and a police intervention in August 2010 wounded 25 protesters; in 2011 the family that owned the Hanga Roa Hotel gave its land back to the Rapa Nui while keeping a management lease. The moai and ahu are sacred ancestral sites, cared for by islanders as well as the state, and respect for them is the first rule for visitors.

Hanga Roa had 7,322 inhabitants at the 2017 census, more than 95 per cent of everyone on the island, which also counts as the commune of Isla de Pascua. Avenida Atamu Tekena, the main street, holds most of the shops, restaurants and services.

Tourism is the economy. The town had about 2,500 beds in 2022, from campsites to luxury hotels, and most families work in lodging, guiding, transport, crafts or restaurants. Fishing, farming and public administration provide the rest, and the Chilean navy and several government departments keep a presence here. A shipping service links the harbour with Valparaíso, and daily flights from Santiago bring in visitors.

Isolation shapes everyday life: imported goods are expensive, the hospital opened in 2013 has just 16 beds, and the nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn, about 2,000 kilometres away. Current debates concern how many visitors the island can absorb, land rights and self-government, and the protection of the moai from weather, fire and accidents.

Fishing has always fed Rapa Nui. Fishing is still part of the town's economy, and tuna was long the basis of local fishing, though islanders have described how catches fell after 2000. Fish dominates the menus of the restaurants on Avenida Atamu Tekena and around the harbour, along with dishes from mainland Chile. The tuna empanada is the town's favourite snack.

The island's traditional dishes are Polynesian. Po'e, a Polynesian pudding traditionally made with banana and baked in an earth oven, reflects the island's roots in eastern Polynesia, whose settlers crossed thousands of kilometres of ocean by canoe to reach it.

Because imported goods are costly, eating out is expensive by Chilean standards, and the grocery stores along the main avenue are used by visitors who prefer to cook for themselves. Fishermen also work from the smaller cove of Hanga Piko, and the boats coming in to both coves are part of the daily scene in town.