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The
Rapa Nui people always have characterized themselves for being a strong race with great sport talents. As much in sea as in
ground, they have developed a variety of games or sports, which they practice until today, putting each competitor his physical
skills and strategy capacity, and what is most important, his personal pride and that of his family.
Most of these sports are practiced during Tapati Rapa Nui, on February of each year.
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| Haka Pei |
HAKA PEI
Sliding in banana trunks; this was one of the favorite games of the young people and children of Rapa Nui, who
practiced it in diverse hills of the Island. It is a mixture of value and physical skill, in which the competitors throw
down themselves by the Pu'i hill, backs in two trunks of banana joined between them, and without any protection
measurement. The used hill has a hillside of 120 mts. With a slope of 45°, thus the sportsmen reach speeds of up to 80
km/hrs.
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REGATA
Navigation is part of
the identity of the Polynesian people, for whom the sea is their home. The people of Rapa Nui are not the
exception, and the ocean plays an intregal part in all their legends and myths. The colonization of the island by
the Ariki Hotu Matúa, reiterates the quality of great navigators who in the past distiguished the people of Rapa Nui. During
the TAPATI the old navigators are commemorated and given homage through the construction of boats (Vaka Ama) of around 8 mts
in length, that almost circumnavigate the Island in a full day journey.
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| Vaka Ama |
TAU’A RAPA NUI
Is a real triathlon of local sports, that takes place in the slopes and the lagoon of Rano
Raraku’s crater. It includes Vaka Ama canoeing (small boats made from totora -- reed), swimming with
Pora, (long float made of reed), ending with a race carrying a Aka Venga (bananas tied to a pole weighing
15 kilos) on their shoulders. This is one of the most spectacular competitions, along with Haka Pei, of Tapati Rapa
Nui.
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| Carrera de Aka Venga |
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PORA
Raft Swimming. In this competition
of resistance and manual skill, the competitors must craft a body raft, using as meterials, the reeds that grow in the
crater lake. They then swim with their PORA, across the lake, a distance of about 1,500 meters. Each competitor has
painted his body with Rapa Nui designs and garment the ancient custom.
Oral tradition says that in ancient times PORA was used to carry food from the ceremonial
village of Orongo to the barren island of Motu Nui, by the Hopu Manu, who were the servants of
those who ran as candidates of the Tangata Manu -birdman- competition.
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TANGATA MANU
The ceremony of the man bird was consisting of a competition
that took as an object the apprehension of the first egg of the manutara bird. Every tribe had a representative (hopu
manu); those who were imprisoned in the precincts of the volcano Rano Kau to train in the different aspects of the competition
(climb, swimming).
With the arrival of the first migratory birds to the
islets, in spring, started the competition The hopu manu or competitors celebrated with a ritual meal called humu
tahu, they painted their bodies with kiea (mineral ground of colors extracted from the cliffs) and
later they proceeded to go down the immediate cliff to the village of Orongo, with a height of approximately
300 m to the sea level. Then they swam towards the biggest of the islets, Motu Nui, distant approximately
two kilometers away. The hopu manu was waiting in caverns that the bird put his first egg on the islet.
Then they take the egg, and carry with them back to Orongo. The first man in arrival was the new tangata manu,
and his chief the ariki or king of Rapa Nui for one year.
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