Last modified: 2005-07-23 by antonio martins
Keywords: te pito o te henua | te reva | paoa | tangata manu | manu tara | bird man | bird (orange) | ioane 1 (jean-onésime dutrou-bornie | easter island) | moai |
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The inhabitants call their land Te Pito o Te Henua, the navel of
the world, based on local pre-historic tales. In 1722, a Dutch explorer,
Jacob Roggeveen, sighted and visited the island on an Easter Sunday, and
the name stuck: Easter Island (Isla de Páscua in Spanish).
The Polynesian name of the island is Rapanui, which is a name given
by a Tahitian visitor in the 19th century who says that the island looked
like the Tahitian island Rapa, but bigger, nui.
Gustav Tracchia, 20 Aug 2003,
quoted and resumed by António Martins
The first flag-like object we have knowledge to be used by the natives was «the Te-reva, which means "to hang" in Polynesian,» writes Grant McCall. «Te-reva is the name used for such standards in Tahiti. One of such Te-reva is preserved on the Museum of Valparaiso in Chile. The banner has on it many devices o