This Is What Easter Island Looks Like Post-Pandemic

Abstract

• Easter Island grew to become extra self-sufficient in the course of the pandemic, counting on one another and the land fairly than tourism and outdoors assets.
• Residents acknowledged the significance of preserving their archaeological heritage, together with the deteriorating moai statues, no matter vacationers’ influence.
• Flights to Easter Island stay restricted, emphasizing the necessity for stability and the potential for the island to revive its tradition with out relying closely on tourism.

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as locals consult with their homeland, determined in 2020 to close down the island to guests. On condition that 75% of the economic system was tourist-based, this meant that the cash that residents had been accustomed to creating was gone with out warning. However with extraordinarily restricted hospital house, leaders of Easter Island knew they wanted to isolate themselves to come back out of the pandemic as unscathed as potential.

Utterly stopping tourism and even many of the provide deliveries from mainland Chile meant that residents of Easter Island needed to not solely depend on each other however depend on the land in a means that had not been finished in generations. This meant rising meals and catching fish from the ocean. It meant serving to out these in the neighborhood who had been struggling. For the primary time in over 70 years, when the primary aircraft got here to Easter Island, residents had been fully shut off from the surface world.

In August 2022, vacationers had been allowed to come back to the island once more and stay in the top-rated hotels located there. They received to see what distant Easter Island was like following two years of pandemic isolation. What has been seen is that residents of Easter Island thrived in methods they didn’t know potential in the course of the pandemic and have made Easter Island higher for it.

Easter Island Grew to become Extra Self-Enough Thanks To Umanga

Easter Island realized to depend on themselves extra and the surface world much less throughout and after the pandemic

When the individuals of Easter Island had been requested to shut down principal vacationer areas in addition to the island itself throughout COVID, they knew life was going to get arduous. Simply how arduous it was for some residents couldn’t have been imagined.

However when individuals got here collectively and helped their neighbors through the spirit of umanga, or the enjoyment of working collectively for a typical purpose, life grew to become bearable. The neighborhood additionally grew to become extra self-sufficient consequently.

By overcoming the huge unemployment on the island and thru residents counting on each other — to not point out the federal government subsidies that allowed them to develop completely different crops in 1,300 gardens across the island — the Rapa Nui individuals acknowledged that they had been dropping the flexibility to be self-sufficient.

Not solely had been they counting on the Chilean authorities for provides, however additionally they relied closely on vacationers coming to the island.

It grew to become very clear, in a short time in the course of the pandemic that the residents of the island had “gone the wrong direction” over the years. Turning into extra self-sufficient was one thing the federal government required to be finished as quickly as potential.

“We had been unsuitable, we had been going within the unsuitable path and the pandemic made us notice that,” Mayor Edmonds Paoa defined. “We got here to the conclusion that tourism had blinded us. We had been being a bit hypocritical by telling what the island was about with out truly dwelling it ourselves.”

Due to this, sustainability has change into the bar to be achieved on Easter Island. One thing that may already be seen by crops which are being served within the eating places across the island, fairly than requiring provides from Chile to make a menu for vacationers to take pleasure in.

Extra crops are additionally being given to charities across the island to assist residents who want some help as they get again on their ft.

Preservation Of Archeological Heritage Grew to become Essential To Residents Of Easter Island

Residents need to defend the moai, no matter the way it impacts vacationers

The Rapa Nui individuals have at all times been very protecting of one of many cultural treasures of Chile, and that’s the moai on the island. Whereas some are prominently featured in documentaries or tourism pamphlets, what individuals may not know about the moai is that there are practically 900 statues which are discovered throughout Easter Island.

Lots of the moai have been part of the tradition since 1400 AD. Whereas some had been destroyed centuries in the past because of tribal warfare, with the assistance of some restoration, the moai have been pretty well-preserved. Or so it was believed.

Nevertheless, because of local weather change, inflicting extra hurricanes, flooding, and sea degree modifications, the moai are deteriorating at a fast tempo. An enormous fireplace on Easter Island in 2021 exacerbated the problem and greater than ever, the Rapa Nui individuals needed to protect their archeological heritage.

Unfortunately, there is no plan in place to do so. It’s because “there’s a lack of consensus among the many Rapa Nui about how one can protect the moai.”

This case is irritating for Pedro Edmunds Paoa, the mayor of Easter Island. Particularly with extra of the moai being destroyed because the years go by. Edmonds Paoa believes that the tourists who come to the island should not be taken into consideration with regards to saving the moai, calling the value of the moai “incalculable.”

“Any more the vacationer should change into a pal of the place, whereas earlier than they had been visiting foreigners,” Edmonds Paoa defined. As such if it means placing “glass domes” over the moai to protect them for future generations of the Rapa Nui individuals, then Edmond Paoa believes it must be finished.

Flights Are Nonetheless Restricted To Easter Island

Flights will proceed to be restricted to Easter Island indefinitely

Earlier than the pandemic, there have been 10 weekly flights to Easter Island. Moreover, there have been constitution planes and cruise ships that introduced in vacationers as nicely.

These flights helped greater than 150,000 guests come to the island yearly and gave the island over $120 million in tourism {dollars}, based on El Pais. This was good from the standpoint of lining the pockets of the residents. However when it got here to preserving the tradition of Easter Island, it was destroying it.

Due to this, something to know before going to Easter Island is that there are actually solely two weekly flights to Easter Island. Whereas there could also be extra sooner or later, island leaders imagine that there must be stability. It’s extremely unlikely that the variety of folks that come to Easter Island within the upcoming years will ever attain pre-pandemic ranges.

Nevertheless, as a result of the Rapa Nui individuals have realized to depend on themselves extra during the last couple of years and fewer on outdoors assets, they could not want as many vacationers to come back to the island. This may occasionally assist to revive a few of the tradition misplaced through the years and convey the individuals of Easter Island nearer to their ancestors than many have ever been earlier than.