Transcript
Photo: AFP
MARCUS EDENSKY: They forced people out of their homes in the beginning of it all. They were forced into what today is the town of Hanga Roa, the only town of the island. And since then really, no Rapa Nui has been in control of these lands that are outside of town.
DOMINIC GODFREY: So what prompted this change of heart from the Chilean government, to release these lands back to the people of Rapa Nui? Was the Michelle Bachelet government responsible?
ME: Truth to be told, there was this quite polemic article. The mayor of the island, he contacted a national newspaper in Chile talking about how the Rapa Nui community perhaps was considering to seek aid from other countries, like to lose all the connections from Chile. Kind of insinuating that. And I think it had big consequences, she wouldn't want to be the one responsible for losing Rapa Nui. Only a short while after that, like a week after that, we heard that she was coming over, and she did. And that's when she gave back these ancestral lands back to the Rapa Nui community.
DG: So behind the scenes, working backwards, what was being done by the local community, by people like the mayor of Hanga Roa to politically motivate...
ME: To move towards this?
DG: Yes, to move towards this.
ME: I believe that what helped things happen was actually this minority called the Rapa Nui Parliament. They on the island are seen as quite radical and they don't represent the opinions of the whole community. They talk a lot about being independent from Chile and I think that this force has still helped things to move towards that direction, to be more locally independent and have more authority. In the year 2015 they took control over the archaeological sites themselves. They started being the authority all of a sudden and the police let them as well because the police, they're a Chilean organisation and they still guests here at this island so they are very careful in poking around too much in the local community right. So they were left like that for six months. They started controlling who was a tour guide for example. Many things happened, many things happened, and all of a sudden this CONAF, this Corporación Nacional Forestal, this National Forest Corporation of Chile, they did not charge [for] the ticket any more the national park ticket which was back then US$60 for foreigners. And that moved things around a lot.
DG: Did the people from the Rapa Nui Parliament then start charging tourists for access to the park?
ME: They did not, they left it free of charge during that time. Then though, after six months, they went more aggressive, they started to try to charge money and they would keep money for their organisation. That was the idea because they were really taking care of the archaeological sites. I'm sure they were very motivated as well by the idea of showing that they were able to do it. And then the police actually entered, I'm sure they had said before at the police station that if they start to charge money then we'll stop them. And then they took a couple of leaders from this organisation, they took them in. After that CONAF came back and helped out once again with looking after the archaeological sites, it's like they were let back out at the sites. In the end, after this was all over, I felt that there was a lot more discussion about having more authority here at the island. And a friend of mine had, before this had happened, developed this idea, this project that he called Ma'u Henua which means to bring the land, to take the land, to take it in your hands and care for it.
Photo: World News Daily
