The statues have owners
Discussion of the moai often treats them as the remains of a vanished people and invites speculation about who could possibly have built them. The accurate starting point is simpler. The statues were made by the Rapa Nui, a Polynesian people, and the Rapa Nui still live on the island and in other places, including mainland Chile. They speak a Polynesian language, also called Rapa Nui, keep their own traditions, and take part in the management of the island’s heritage. Any account of the statues that leaves them out is incomplete.
Where the Rapa Nui came from
The settlers were Polynesians, whose ancestors had spread across the Pacific over many centuries in one of the great episodes of human migration, the wider Pacific settlement. Their navigation depended on Polynesian wayfinding, which used stars, swells, winds and birds, and on large voyaging canoes that could carry people, plants and animals over long distances. The ancestors of the Rapa Nui sailed east to one of the most isolated inhabited places on Earth.
Linguistic comparison links the Rapa Nui language to the languages of eastern Polynesia. Cultivated plants and animals, such as the sweet potato and chicken that settlers brought, also point to Polynesian origins, as does the Polynesian rat, which came as a stowaway or deliberately. Genetic studies of living islanders and of ancient DNA from remains indicate mainly Polynesian ancestry. They also detect a limited contribution from Native American populations, estimated by researchers to date to some centuries before Europeans arrived. How that contact took place is debated, and it does not change the basic origin of the culture or the statues.
When did they arrive?
The date of settlement is one of the most debated questions. Earlier estimates favoured something like 400 to 800 CE, based on early interpretations of some evidence. More recent radiocarbon work on short-lived materials has led many researchers to prefer a later date, around 1200 CE, and some propose a similar horizon for the wider colonisation of the more remote islands of eastern Polynesia. The matter is still discussed, partly because dating is sensitive to the material chosen and to the method of analysis. A careful summary is that settlement probably took place sometime between roughly 800 and 1200 CE, with many recent studies favouring the later part of that range.
Rapa Nui oral tradition names a founding chief, Hotu Matu’a, who is said to have arrived with his family and followers at the beach of Anakena. Traditions like this are valuable cultural heritage and may preserve memories, but historians treat them as accounts to be weighed with the archaeology, not as a dated record.
Society and the statues
Archaeology and tradition together suggest a society organised in kin groups under chiefs, with different areas of the island associated with different lineages. The moai fit that picture. Each statue was raised in connection with a group, standing on a platform that belonged to a community. Carvers, builders, farmers and fishers all contributed, and the investment of effort in monuments is a sign of the importance of ancestors and lineage in Rapa Nui life.
Writing in the form of the rongorongo tablets existed on the island, and some of the surviving objects are of striking quality, but the script has not been deciphered, so it cannot tell us what the makers said about the statues. The sources we have are archaeology, oral traditions and the records of visitors, and each has limits.
The 19th-century crisis
The Rapa Nui experienced catastrophic loss in the 19th century. In 1862 and 1863, slave raiders from Peru took away well over a thousand islanders, a significant part of the population. Many of those taken died, and the few who were returned brought disease with them. Epidemics, including smallpox and tuberculosis, followed. Missionaries arrived in the 1860s, and the island’s traditional leadership and many practices were disrupted. By the late 1870s, reports put the population at only a little over a hundred people.
This history matters for how the statues are understood. Much of what was recorded about Rapa Nui tradition was gathered after this collapse, from survivors and their descendants, which affects what could be remembered and written down. Chile annexed the island in 1888, and for much of the following century the islanders were restricted in their movement and land use.
Heritage today
The population recovered, and today the Rapa Nui are a community of several thousand on the island, with many more elsewhere. They have pressed for recognition of their rights over land, culture and the management of heritage sites. The statues and surrounding landscape lie in a national park listed by UNESCO in 1995, and a Rapa Nui community organisation has taken part in park management in recent years. Debates continue about tourism, immigration and the pressure that visitor numbers put on a small island and fragile sites.
One long-standing request deserves mention. In 2018, the British Museum was asked to return a moai from its collection to the island. The request was widely reported, and whether any statue will be returned has remained a matter of discussion.
Reading the evidence respectfully
Most of the unanswered questions about the moai concern details, such as dates, methods and the course of events. The identity of their makers is not in doubt. A useful approach is to treat Rapa Nui knowledge as a source alongside archaeology, to avoid stories in which the islanders needed outside help, and to remember that the statues are the heritage of people who are alive today.