The Mythology Book

324

I

n the mythology of the

Rapa Nui people, who are

indigenous to Easter Island,

the world was created by a god

named Makemake. The chief god

of the birdman cult, he was often

depicted in art as a skull with

goggle eyes, or as a sooty tern.

Makemake created the first

human beings. Trying to procreate,

the god first masturbated into a

calabash full of water, but this

produced no offspring. Then he

copulated with stones—which still

bear the holes he created in them—

but that did not work either. Lastly,

he masturbated into clay, and as a

result, four gods were born—Tive,

Rorai, Hova, and Arangi-kote-kote.

One day, these gods gave a

priestess the task of guarding a

skull in the bay of Tongariki, on

Easter Island. When the skull was

swept away by a huge wave, the

Prehistoric carvings line the coast of

Easter Island and overlook Moto Nui

Island, the destination of a dangerous

annual race competition, which would

often claim lives.

WHAT WOULD YOU

SAY TO OUR DRIVING

THE BIRDS TO

EASTER ISLAND?

MAKEMAKE AND HAUA

IN BRIEF

THEME

Creation and worship

SOURCES

Ethnology of Easter Island,

Albert Métraux, 1940; The

Enigmas of Easter Island, John

Flenley and Paul Bahn, 2003.

SETTING

Easter Island; the beginning

of time.

KEY FIGURES

Makemake God of seabirds.

Haua Goddess; wife of

Makemake.

Priestess A local preacher.

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OCEANIA 325

Makemake as depicted in an Easter

Island petroglyph carved from red

scoria, ca. 1960. Scoria was also used

to build the red hatlike structures

of Easter Island’s famous moai statues.

See also: Viracocha the creator 256–57 ■ Tane and Hine-titama 314–15 ■

Ta’aroa gives birth to the gods 316–17 ■

priestess swam after it for three

days, until she eventually came

ashore on the island of Matiro-hiva.

The goddess Haua, wife of

Makemake, appeared and asked

the priestess what she was doing.

She replied that she was looking for

a skull. “That is not a skull,” Haua

told her, “it is the god Makemake.”

New gods

The priestess stayed on the island

with Haua and Makemake, and the

gods fed her the fish they caught.

Then Makemake suggested that

they should drive all the seabirds to

Rapa Nui, as this was what he had

come to the island to do. Haua

agreed, and said that the priestess

should join them and teach people

how to worship their new gods.

The three of them set out,

driving the birds in front of them, in

search of a place where they could

leave them to nest. First they tried

the island of Hauhanga, where they

stayed for three years, but men

found the nests and took the eggs

to eat. Then they went to Vai Atare,

but once again men stole the eggs

and used them as food. Makemake

and Haua agreed that they needed

to find a place that man could not

reach. So they settled on the rocky

islets of Motu Nui and Motu Iti, just

off the coast of Rapa Nui.

Egg hunt

All this time, the priestess traveled

around Rapa Nui, teaching people

how to worship their new gods and

to set aside a portion for them before

each meal and say “Makemake and

Haua, this is for you.”

At the sacred site of Orongo, the

skull-mask of Makemake and the

vulva of Haua were carved all over

the rocks, along with depictions of

a bird-headed man clutching an

egg. From this spot, competitors

representing the Easter Island

chiefs set off and vied to collect

the first egg of the season from the

islets. When a chief was victorious,

he was declared the birdman, the

living representative of Makemake

on earth for the coming year. ■

Rongorongo boards

Some of the most intriguing

artifacts to survive the

collapse of Easter Island

culture are rongorongo boards.

Since their discovery in 1864,

these pieces of wood, carved

with hieroglyphs, have been

a source of much debate

over whether or not they

actually represent a consistent

written language. While the

glyphs remain undeciphered

to this day, oral history means

that the rongorongo boards

are believed to have been

viewed as sacred objects,

probably used by trained

chanters or bards for telling

myths. On one board, out of

a total of 960 symbols, 183

are representations of a sooty

tern, symbolizing the god

Makemake. The “Santiago

Staff” has the longest of any

inscription, with 2,320 glyphs.

In 1995, independent

linguist Steven Fischer stated

that he had deciphered 85

percent of the rongorongo

boards. He proposed that

the significant rongorongo

texts, including the Santiago

staff, documented, through

a triad structure of images,

the creation of the world

and everything in it through

a series of copulations.

His claims, however, have

attracted several objections

from scholars who note that,

among other discrepancies,

only half of the inscriptions on

the Santiago staff fully obey

Fischer’s triad structure.

We shall have

no peace until we find

a place where men

cannot find us.

Easter Island

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