Festival Tapati

We have arrived in the middle of the annual Festival Tapati which is a wonderful two week mix of carnival type activities, sports, theatrical presentations and homage to the island. It is now part of the people reclaiming their heritage and is not something put on for the tourists but because everyone is so hospitable and friendly we are invited to join in (G is very disappointed that we shall be missing the body painting – he’s still talking about getting a tattoo in Tahiti!) The festival began in 1963 to celebrate passing of Ley Pascua which allowed Rapa Nuians to vote in the Chilean presidential elections. Celebrated annually, the festival covers about two weeks at the end of January and into February.
The whole festival is based on a competition between two young women who want to be queen of the island for a year and each one has to gather her team to enter a whole variety of activities and gain points for her. Sporting competitions are based on ancient sports, such as sliding down a cliff on a banana tree in a haka pei competition - the person who stays on the log longest wins. Other popular event include swimming and oaring across the lake at Rano Raraku in a reed tortora raft and then racing around the lake balancing banana bunches over the shoulders. There are canoe races across the bay at Hanga Roa, and competitions in such things as cooking, floral decoration, agricultural produce, shell necklace making but it is the dance competitions for all ages and singing competition between the two prospective “queens” that happen on the stage in the evening from 10pm that are the big attractions. The festival finishes with parades with floats and costumed figures, the crowning of the queen and a huge firework display – sadly we shall have left by then. We fly to Tahiti on Wednesday but have heard that it has recently been hit by a typhoon ...