Easter Island (
Rapa Nui Rapa Nui,
Spanish Isla de Pascua) is a
Polynesian island in the southeastern
Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the
Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of
Chile. Easter Island is famous for its monumental statues, called
moai (
IPA /ˈmoʊаɪ/), created by the
Rapanui people. It is a
world heritage site with much of the island protected within the
Rapa Nui National Park.
The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered Easter Island on Easter Sunday 1722, while searching for Davis or David's island.[2] The island's official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, is Spanish for "Easter Island".
The current Polynesian name of the island, "Rapa Nui" or "Big Rapa", was coined by labor immigrants from Rapa in the Bass Islands, who likened it to their home island in the aftermath of the Peruvian slave deportations in the 1870s.[3] However, Thor Heyerdahl has claimed that the naming would have been the opposite, Rapa being the original name of Easter Island, and Rapa Iti was named by its refugees.[4]
There are several hypotheses about the "original" Polynesian name for Easter Island, including Te pito o te henua, or "The Navel of the World" due to its isolation. Legends claim that the island was first named as Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka, or the "Little piece of land of Hau Maka".[5] Another name, Mata-ki-Te-rangi, means "Eyes that talk to the sky."[6]
