2006-04-12

Rapa Nui

I am reading the most astonishing things. I am reading about Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, the easternmost island of the Polynesian chain in the Pacific. Quite frankly, it is freaking me right out.

There are so many remarkable things to relate here - only a few salient facts of which are enough to keep your head spinning for days. First, the possibility the island was ever settled at all. It is 1300 miles from the nearest populated island of any size, and it is also located at a disadvantage to prevailing ocean current and wind conditions. Discounting Thor Heyerdahl's theory of a western migration from Peru, which has been all but disproved from recent DNA testing, that means a voyage in a platoon of two-man canoes of no less than 17 days, and constantly paddling. Never mind that you would need food, water, a sizeable contingent of healthy colonizers, and considerable rhetoric and motivation to convince said colonizers to help find an island you can't possibly have known even existed, and which, as it turns out, is about 10 miles long and another 10 wide. How could...? No, not even, just 'how'? No, not even that...it's like, you can't even begin to make the syllables to express the kind of thirst mental somersaults like that absolutely demand to be quenched of! I am speechless! And yet, we know they did make the voyage, by whatever way and means, as there is at least 1000 years of archaeological evidence to support it, prior to the first European contact in the 18th century.

And then. They get to this island, which according to what I'm reading, was not particularly well endowed in the first place (as compared to other Polynesian islands) - it had less species of fish surrounding its waters, no coral reefs, fewer native species of plant life, no large mammals, fewer large species of bird, and to top it all off, it got far less rainfall and suffered from constant strong winds. And then they go and spend at least 500 years carving and erecting giant stone heads. Really - and if you know me, you know I hate messenger type acronyms - but, really, WTF? Imagine: you colonize an island that totally sucks ass, has no neighbours to trade with whatsoever, has marginal resources at best, and then you spend a lot of energy (it had to be a huge dedication of time, resources and people) to make these freaky big heads (as tall as 70 feet and 85 tonnes) - and, AND - you do so without such tools as the wheel or any sort of crane technology.

So, OK. First this astounds me, and then it amazes and inspires me. If you lived for fifty years you might not even get to see the completed construction for one of the bases of these giant stone heads - but you undoubtedly would have dedicated a large portion of your life to bringing this about, even if it meant simply supporting other workers! I just can't fathom the rationalization...how did the chief convince his people to do this? Apparently, there is some instinct for competition in Polynesian society, and this Easter Island may have been radially segmented into approximately 12 competing tribes...but still.

And then another thought came crashing through my consciousness: what is human endeavour really all about - at least, once you have stripped away the basic necessities of life? It is about nothing, generally, but perhaps creating something that will outlast your own mortal bones. Some participate in cooperatives, some write books, some accumulate vast fortunes, some, accordingly, dedicate resources beyond the scope of a human lifespan to see a giant stone head stand tall and gaze patiently out to sea for a visitor that might never come - in short, all, at least partly, are interested in creating something greater than themselves. All, at least partly, suffer the most interesting of intrinsic human instincts: pure, unadulterated ambition.

And this drives me so. I imagine, as much as it is possible, standing on an island of what? - of rock, wind-driven volcanic rock, and buying into this crazy man's idea that a big head - but how big of a head? - so big, much bigger than five canoes end to end, standing, here - no, here! and looking out to sea (and this is private speculation) to guide us home; to protect us; to honour a god; to honour me; magnificent and stately it will be, so grand - and here is where I am inclined to ask, for what? but already I am stayed, I am silent, by this crazy dream I cannot fathom, already I am with him, already I am nodding in assent, already I am knowing I will do all I can to see some part of this divine passion come to fruition - and I imagine at the end of my life, hard as it may have been, to see now the beginning of the base for the head which is part-carved, and I feel myself dying, drifting away, but I am happy, so happy to have been part of something that will go on; so happy to simply have been.

And today, I imagine 26 years have passed, and I am only now just finding the site for the base which will be so big, perhaps 20 times heavier than the giant head whose quarry I have yet to explore, but which, when all is said and done, will one day be graced with a face much larger and impassive than my own, to stand as a testament to my power, to my will, my basic intrinsic need, to say, 'yes, I was here; yes I was swayed by crazy forces I have not come to understand; yes I was human; and yes, I am just so happy to have been. May this giant head perplex and quite overwhelm you, may it inspire and guide you and spur you on in your own mad and atavistic pursuit. Long may it haunt you when my spirit has moved on and disappeared.'

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