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SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EASTER ISLAND AND THE PACIFIC
VI Congreso Internacional sobre Rapa Nui y el Pacífico
September 21 - 25, 2004 Viña del Mar, Chile
SESSION X: ARTS IN THE PACIFIC Carol Ivory, Chair
1. Arts Festivals in the Marquesas Islands: Identity, Pride and Politics on Display. Carol Ivory, Washington State University
Abstract Six Festivals of Art have been held in Te Henua Enana/Te Fenua Enata, the Marquesas Islands, since 1987. Two each have been held on the islands of Ua Pou (1987, 1995), Nuku Hiva (1989, 1999) and Hiva Oa (1991, 2003). The festivals have always been primarily for the Marquesan people themselves. Their name, Matavaa o te Henua Enana, means ‘wake up the eyes of the Marquesas Islands’. The main goals of the festivals have been to strengthen Marquesan pride, to foster inter-island cooperation, to encourage interest in maintaining or reviving the arts, and to educate young people about their history and their culture. In broader terms, the festivals have also served to enhance awareness of Marquesan identity within French Polynesia (especially vis-a-vis Tahiti), within the Pacific generally, and in France. Drawing on interviews with prominent Marquesan leaders, as well as the author’s firsthand experience at the last three of the six festivals, this paper will first present a brief history of the festivals. It will then assess the success of the festivals in fulfilling their intended goals. Finally, it will discuss some of the intended, and unintended, political and social aspects that have arisen over the years.
2. Motifs from Rekohu and Rapa Nui. Rhys Richards, Wellington
Abstract Art motifs from Rekohu and their parallels elsewhere in Polynesia include physical and social elements that could be relevant in continuing studies of petroglyph and other motifs on Rapanui. Rapanui and Rekohu are the extreme "outliers" within Polynesia. Both are sub-tropical, but Rekohu (the Chatham Islands 500 miles east of New Zealand) is cool, windy and often damp. These two island groups were the last habitable places to be discovered by Man. The indigenous peoples of Rekohu and Rapanui shared ancient ancestors, very similar highly evolved Neolithic material culture, linguistic roots and, often, a common vocabulary. "Rapanui" is also a place name on Rekohu! But over the centuries, in response to similarly oceanic but significantly different oceanic environments, the people changed their livelihoods and social systems into very different lifestyles. On Rekohu they adopted hunter-gatherer strategies and less social stratification, without agriculture and without wars and killings. In 1790 these "Moriori" numbered over 2,000.
A few petroglyphs of birds and seals are found on Rekohu, and well designed and crafted tools were made from local basalt. However, distinctive tree carvings (dendroglyphs) are etched into the trunks of living trees. The first serious study of them was published only in 1956. In 1963, an Otago Museum team located and photographed 400 remaining dendroglyphs. By 1976, half of those had been lost, with one whole group gone entirely. In 1990 surveyors using GIS precisely located the remainder for the first time, but found that only 168 glyphs survive. With the renaissance of the Moriori since 1990 and their repossession of the land containing most of the surviving dendroglyphs to be announced by the Waitangi Tribunal, the prospects for the continued preservation of the remaining old trees with dendroglyphs, are now very good. The dendroglyphs are a resource for comparison with the art motifs of Rapanui.
3. Shifts in Cultural (Re) presentations in Rapa Nui. Riet Delsing, University of California at Santa Cruz
Abstract Rapanui performing arts are increasingly complementing, and even replacing the image of the moai in the Rapanui tourist product, as well as in contemporary Rapanui cultural identity. I argue that Euro/American museum culture has transformed the moai from a cult image into a cultural icon, an object of global fascination clouded in mystery and romanticism, thus impoverishing the statue’s original cultural meaning. A Rapanui cultural Renaissance has taken place over the last decades, in which performing arts are occupying the central stage. Contemporary Rapanui are disconnecting themselves in their fluid cultural practices from colonial practices that fix them in time. They thus unsettle forms of imposed identity, and are creating an identity based on constantly changing cultural features and imageries. This paper will examine how the Rapanui navigate between outside expectations, as created by the tourist industry and traditional spaces of display — such as museums and galleries — and their own (re)presentations as conscious culture bearers.
4. Changes in Rapanui Music and Dance During the Last 30 Years and their Consequences for Island Culture. Arturo Alarcón, Rapa Nui
Abstract Rapanui cultural practices have undergone profound changes over the last 30 years. This paper shows how the first foreign influences in the choreography of traditional dances and the rhythms of traditional songs came from Tahiti via the missionaries and early colonizers. Various music and dance groups have been formed since the 1960s, starting with the group of Papa Kiko. Each one of these groups displaced an earlier one and showed its own special characteristics. The introduction of radio and television has exercised a big influence on Rapanui cultural expressions over the last several years. The paper discusses the changes in form and content of these groups. A critique of the concept of "show", that has infiltrated Rapanui culture, will be provided, as well as a critical analysis of the Tapati, Rapa Nuís yearly festival, that has been taking place since the 1970s. The necessity for serious research of traditional culture, in order to guide contemporary cultural manifestations, will be discussed.
5. Impact of Contact: Marquesan Ear Ornaments and Their Development in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Hilary Scothorn, Pacific Arts Association / Florida State University
Abstract Body ornaments comprise a large part of the known art forms from the Marquesas Islands and provide important insight into cultural adaptation and transformation, which was fostered by contact with Euro-Americans. While tattoo is perhaps the most well known of body ornaments from these islands, bone and shell ear ornaments reflect a tradition for ornamentation based upon ancient cultural beliefs. Ear ornaments underwent a sustained growth and artistic floresence post contact. This suggests that, like tattoo, they were a means to assert cultural identity in a time of social transition as well as a vehicle for artistic expression. This paper will discuss the formal changes manifested in Marquesan ear ornaments from the time of extended western contact in 1774 until the collection efforts of Karl Von den Steinen in the late 19th century. As foreign technology was incorporated into Enata culture, the ornaments, called hakakai and taiana, underwent a major transformation that combined significant Marquesan historical events with the tools and materials from outsiders. The social messages reflected in the creation and use of these ornaments provides valuable insight into the history of post-contact Enata culture..
6. Rapanui Iconography: Formal and Compositional. Characteristics. Mónica Cornejo-Lacroix, Universidad de Valparaíso
Abstract This study refers to the Rapa Nui people and their cultural heritage, professing to rescue and disseminate its imagery, which is based on the formal and compositional characteristics of its iconography, and trying to be faithful to the origin of forms, avoiding vulgarization. Some representations and creations evolved in different stages of Rapa Nui history, but the essence remained the same, and other forms appeared according to new beliefs and rites. In the character and organization of the forms we can see similarities and differences. Moreover, they have organization that could be a formal composition (regulated and recognizable order) or an informal composition (without the norms that regulate the disposition forms, with changes of directions, position and size).
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