LAST YEAR, THE "SURVIVOR" TV eries was filmed on NukuHiva. Some 230 fllrn crew personnel came to construct build­ings, road, and a "tribal council" (a fake Polynesian tructurewith a palm frond root). The French Polynesian Council ofMinisters declared four of the island's valleys "off-limits" andfilming began on November 12. There were problems. TheMarque ans wanted a "Tahiti Mystic Island" logo and websiteaddress to be added a part of the program's credits in the hopewas that publicity would reinvigorate tourism in French Poly­nesia. However, indigenou i landers were invisible in the film;the jungle-shrouded peak were digitally re-mastered to ob­scure all ign of habitation; and the island's animal and pro­duce seemed available for ea y trapping and plucking. Themost that was seen of "the people" were a few quick shot oftatue que, tattooed warrior during the commercial breaks.

Traditional chants for background music were synthesized into'world music'. Crafts were worked into the "challenges" the"tribes" engaged in, such as the contestants struggling to ingestfafaru, a fermented raw fish dish considered inedible by West- .emers. When voting each other out, the players wrote names ontapa and put them in a carved umete (the "immunity trophy"was the type of wooden tiki sculpted for the tourist trade). Dif­ficulties between the producer and the locals were ~en to thelocal court: one plaintiff requested and was granted a cash set­tlement of $23,000. For another case, the owner of the landwhere the "tribal council" was built "won" - but he only wonthe right to have the structure di mantled after filming. The 74­year-old caretaker of Hakatea village had his house, dock a.ndplumbing system bulldozed so the valley would appear unm­habited. A prefab wa put up for him elsewhere, but he was nothappy: ''The Americans are quick and rich.... We didn't wantto move, but there wa trong pre ure

Some islanders were won over, mostly by the thought thattourists would be attracted to the islands and that nearly 400local would be hired. Some were hired to guard the valleysfrom security breaches or to act as drivers and other assistants.Wages were high (by local standards). But there was discontentwhen fishermen were unable to fi h and prices went up. Thoseemployed by the production were happy to get money for theu e of their vehicles, but were frustrated by having to wait allday at the producers' beck and call. One said, ''They pay me fordoing nothing. They are crazy...."

After the production ended the air-conditioned cruise shipon which half of the production crew had been housed was de­tained by customs in Tahiti because the producers had notmade correct arrangements with the government for u ing theship in such manner. A tax of $444,000 was levied.

The end re ult: the expected tidal wave of American tour­ists probably will not happen, for not only is the nona (the bit­ing fly that causes itchy, infected welts) ''bad press", but theaverage tourist find the difficulties and co t of visiting theseislands to be insurmountable. The film production left the Mar­que an i landers little in the way of economic benefit, but didleave them with some indignation that 'Enana once more 10 t achance to repre ent their own culture to the world.

[After Kathleen C. Riley, Anthropology News, May 2002]

NORFOLKNORFOLK ISLAND HAS HAD ITS FIRST HOM1CIDE in ISO year ,and nearly all re ident plus tourists are being asked to submitto fingerprinting in order to help fmd the killer. Federal policefrom Australia have notified 1000 of the island's 1500 resi­dents, age 15-70, to voluntarily submit to fingerprinting plus680 Australians and New Zealanders who were on holiday atthe time that a young Australian woman wa murdered.

Center for Pacific Island Studies. August 9. 2002

WHA,''i> N£W IN HAN(;,.A ll-OA

NEWS FROM LANCHlLE AlRLINES in June brought a collectivegasp from both islanders and visitor. It was announced (on theweb site for Pacific Magazine and in newspaper in Chile) thatLanChile intended to drop Tahiti from its trans-Pacific itineraryin July. The announcement involved a change in route to San~­

ago-Auckland-Sydney, without the twice-weekly topover ill

French Polynesia's largest island. The reason given was co t­cutting, following a code haring agreement between LanChileand Australia's Qanta . The announced cancellation of flightconnecting Rapa Nui with Tahiti and the rest of the Pacificwould have cut islanders off from visiting relatives in Tahiti, toay nothing of 10 ing touri ts coming to Rap~ Nui from ~at

direction. It was then di covered that LanChile wa playlDg'chicken' in an effort to get a reduction in landing charge iro­po ed by Tahiti. Tahiti blinked, reduced the co t of the charges,and LanChile then changed its mind. Whew.

THE ISLAND'S BANK on Tu'u Maheke has an ATM machinein ide the bank. That i the good news. The bad news: it is onlyacce sible during banking hour and for cash advances againsta MasterCard. For a Visa cash advance, you have to go to thecounter. Take your passport.

A HOLL¥WOOD TV SERlES is on "hold" because of its use ofmoai replicas! Rapanui's mayor, Petero Edmund, "made himove" and Chilenos and Rapanui living in the United Statesprotested again t Paramount Studios in Hollywood where"Laverne and Shirley Survivors", a atire on realistic programs,wa being filmed. The moai figure were in use as cenery andwere rented from "CP Three", a rental tore for items for moviesets. CP Three rents the moai for US$380 each or will sell themfor US$7800 each. The TV film how four moai (called "tikiheads") surrounded by vegetation that gives the impres ion of atropical island. The plot of the film program is said to make funof the statues. Paramount was told to cease immediately or riskhaving to pay US$150,000 for "cultural insult". Mayor Ed­munds also want a letter of apology. Alerted by El Mercurio,Mayor Edmunds sent a communication to the Rapa-Nui Foun­dation, a denouncement to the Director of UNESCO, and al 0

commissioned his brother, Rene Edmunds Paoa, who live inCalifornia, to coordinate activities of protest and negotiationwith Paramount Studios and all the rest of the companies pro­ducing movies, commercials or TV or movie pecial . A groupof 50 Chilenos from Los Angeles prote ted in front of the stu­dios, demanding that the series, which is "trampling on the cul­ture" of Rapa Nui, cease immediately. Because about a halfmillion dollars has 0 far been invested, the producer ran the

Rapa Nui Journal 116 Vol. 16 (2) October 2002

risk of having to cancel the program. Paramount repre entativeexplained that this is the fust time that they have had problemsof this sort with the Easter I landers, and no Chilean con ulateor diplomat ever expressed any intere t previou ly. Generallywhen a studio uses insignia, emblems, apparel, colors of war,or sacred images, they pay a "cultural fine." In the case of RapaNui, this i the first time that a formal protest has been made.

Another item subsequently appeared in El Mercurio deValparaiso (April 6), continuing Mayor Edmunds' reactions tothe abuses of Hollywood. Edmunds stated that he also objectsto the use of moai image on Smirnoff and Pi co bottles and inadvertisement that exploit the patrimony of Easter Island.

The Hollywood rental store (CP Three) declared that theirmoai figure are in much demand. They have a long list of rent­ers including the producer of a Triple XXX porn flick (adultsonly) and al 0 for a film titled "Making Love Hawaiian Style".The statues were recently u ed in a commercial showing a packof dogs stopping by the side of moai to urinate on them. CPThree's owner said that originally he had ix "Tiki head" thatwere left abandoned in the patio of a studio after Kevin Co tnerand his crew finished filming interior locations for the filmRapa Nui. Ten years ago a Chilean businessman in LA, wantedto re cue the ersatz statues and offered US$10,000 for the fourbut the offer wa refused. I

Officially, Paramount Studio explained that using thetatues wa without bad intention , but it wa not known if the

scenes using the moai are to be modified in the TV special. TheExecutive Director of Paramount Televi ion Media Relationstold El Mercurio de Valparaiso that there was no problem inproviding an apology in writing to the Rapanui people and themayor. However, the demand for $150,000 as a "cultural fine"would have to be con idered by Paramount's legal department.

Some year ago when Kevin Co tner was filming onEa ter I land, i lander were offered $25 to be extras, but $36wa offered to any woman who would go topless. ResidentChilean took thi offer as a per onal affront. In the Lo Ange­les prote t, Co tner was denounced as the author of the worstinsults against Chilean women, especially the Rapanui. Thisbrings up the comments of the movie reviewer, Roger Ebert,who, when reviewing the Costner movie "Rapa Nui", declaredthat only the bare breasts prevented him from calling it theworst film ever made.

In the mid t of all this controversy over the use of moaiimage , we were introduced to The Book of Tiki, by Sven A.Kirsten (Taschen 2000, published in Koln, Germany). Thisbrightly colored, hardcover slick production is basically every­thing you ever wanted to know about the "tiki craze" that gotrolling in the US in the 1940 and 1950's. For tho e who areold enough to remember the old Trader Vic' joint in Oakland,California or Don the Beachcomber's in Los Angeles, both ofwhich date from around 1934, this is a walk down memorylane. Apparently in a misguided case of deja vu, the vogue forthings "tiki" is making a comeback. Readers of Rapa Nui Jour­nal are well aware of thi a our ''Moai Sightings" ju t keeprolling along.

RAPANUl POPULATION: The preliminary results of the April 23,2002 censu cite the population of Rapa Nui as 3,837. Thimakes it one of the faster growing communities in the V Re-

gion, an increase of 38.8% over the 1992 figure of 2,764. Thecen u results were of great intere t amongst the Rapanui popu­lation, which complains that it eem like ten Chileans arrive(to ettle there) with every incoming airplane.

THE DENGUE FEVER EPIDEMIC is officially over for thi year,now that winter ha arrived to the island. No new cases werereported on Rapa Nui for a 10 day period in June. A total of500 cases were officially confumed but there were no deathsreported. Spraying with pesticide continues. (See Letters tothe Editor for more about the dengue fever problem).

A FULL-LE GTH ANIMATED FILM made in Chile called"Mampato y Ogu en Rapa Nui" with voices from several well­known Chilean actors was shown in the gym on Easter Islandto a crowd of around 2000 (the i land has no movie theater). Aspecial screen, projector, and sound system were sent along andet up for the film showing. It cost more than US$2100 to bring

the more than one ton of equipment and four experts to set itup. The film was free so the whole island came to see it. Thechildren benefited mo t. At 4 pm they were let out of school (2Y2 hours earlier than usual). The how tarted at 8: 15 after themilitary band from the visiting ship Esmeralda played somemusic. The musicians, however, were not allowed to ee themovie because all seats were reserved for islander .

The film wa well received. The plot involves some chil­dren and a moai kavakava. The father of Mampato arriveshome with this carving, awakening the curiosity of the red­headed kid-created in 1968 by Eduardo Armstrong andThemo Lobos-who, thanks to a pace-time belt, i able tomove across history. Of course he decides to go to Rapa Nuiwhere he looks for Ogl1, his gola-gola friend who, we are told,steals the show. Marama is an island girl who introduces thevisitor to the conflict going on in Rapa Nui between the "longears" and the "short ear "

In technical term, the movie i impeccable, and the tell­ing of the history is well done. Not being timid about expre ­ing their views, islanders compared the film to "Rapa Nut', theCostner production that was, despite all the Hollywood para­phernalia, a tremendous flop. Maria !ka, 32, carne with her twokid and thought Mampato y Ogu was spectacular. "It was athousand percent better than the Co tner film. Here we learnedthings and were entertained. The mu ic was an A-plus and Ihope the movie wins an 0 car." Claudio Fernandez aid it did­n't matter that some of the characters had blue eyes. 'Themovie was made in a style more for children and so that othersin other part will know more about us. For me the be t part isthat now some aspects of hi tory are clearer to me." "It re­spected our history and helped u to know more about our­selves," said Dorka Tuki. "It is good, simpatica and respectsour history. There are details like the pronunciation of the wordhache for it was dubbed in Mexico with the clear intention ofavoiding our form of speaking (Ca tellafio), and for me, seeingthe blue eyes wa not important." (In Chile, the word mampatomean "a fat animal with short leg ").

THE BISHOP OF VALPARAfso, Mon. Gonzalo Duarte Garda deCortazar, announced plans to open a high school on Easter Is­land. He stated that Rapa Nui belongs to the diocese of

Rapa Nui Journal 117 Vol. 16 (2) October 2002

Valparaiso and one of its activities is to construct and operate asubsidized high school ("colegio") on the island. The newspa­pers stated that Rapanui residents enthusiastically endorsed theplan. Duarte declared that the school would be open to all on theisland and he hoped also for some government support. Con­struction is expected to begin in September with an openingdate of March 2004.

El Mercurio de ValparaiSo, 7 July 2002

THE NEW CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL will start with junior high(7, 8 and 9th grades) and will be constructed near the church, onSimon Paoa (the road that runs pa t the church and toward thehospital). It has been agreed that the chool's name should bein Rapanui, as uggested by Fr. Franci co Nahoe, who hopes tocall it Hare Hapi Katorika 0 Rapa Nui.

We were informed that meeting are being held with theisland's prie t so that parents can give their opinions, what val­ues to teach, etc. It has been announced that children of unmar­ried parents would be accepted, and they would keep pupilswho become pregnant. Catechism will be part of the curriculum.Unclear is the matter of tuition. Many islanders say they cannotafford the anticipated cost.

Not everyone is thrilled by the prospect of a Catholfc cole­gio. The mayor, Petero Edmunds, is against it because he fearsthe school will create some kind of "elite" and a gap betweensocial clas es will result

However, a private grammar school already has sprung upin the village and many islanders are sending their childrenthere because it is less crowded and they claim the in truction isbetter. But that school costs around $100 per month, beyond themeans of many who live on the island.

A COMPANY CALLED AMBAR recently completed a study onEaster Island dealing with the que tion of how many people theisland can support, how many tourists the i land can handle peryear, and what to do about the proliferation of animals, and lackof fresh water, etc. The study was financed by the Corporaci6nForestal (CORFO) and the Corporaci6n Nacional for Indige­nous Development (CONADI). It appears, however, that AM­BAR was working with some erroneous number and they arenow conferring with islanders associated with the Associationof Guides who are providing more realistic numbers.

A ROTARY PEACE SCHOLARSHlP has been awarded to SergioRapu Haoa, former governor of Rapa NuL Sponsored by a Ro­tary District in Chile, Rapu will spend two years, beginning inSeptember, at the Rotary Center for International Studies at theUniversity of California at Berkeley, focusing on a comprehen­sive plan for the development of Easter Island. The RotaryScholarship program provides promising leaders with experi­ences and tools to help prevent conflicts. In his cholarship ap­plication, Rapu pointed out that ethnic minority groups aroundthe world are facing similar problems, and all too often theseerupt into conflicts. Rapu wrote, "I hope to spend the rest of mycareer helping to foster the mission of the Rotary Foundation bypromoting world peace between indigenous groups and the na­tions which encompass them." Congratulations to Sergio!

RotaryWorld, July 2002

Rapa Nui Journal 118

A NEW HOSPITAL COMMITTEE is being formed for the island. Itis called Consejo para el Hospital and its function is "to a surea real access to the [Chilean] system of health and to establi hpolicies related to the community." The committee will includethe local assistant Secretary of Health plus hospital staff and themayor, the governor, the Consejo de Ancianos, and a represen­tative of CONDADI, the Nacional Corporation for IndigenousDevelopment. One can only hope the level of health care on thei land will improve.

RUMORS ON THE ISLAND indicate that plans for a five-star hotelwith golf course to be built at Vaitea (in the center of the i land)have been reactivated. A consortium from Canada appears to bebehind this ill-advised scheme. Islanders who have hotels andbusinesses in the village of Hangaroa are outraged by the plansbecause not only would such a hotel take customers away fromthe village hotels, but a golf cour e would uck all the waterfrom the island's aquifer. Several islander have contacted us,asking for help. Those who are willing to write in protest cansend email to Sr Ricardo Lagos, Presidente de Chile (www.presidencia.cl) with copy to Sr. Raul Allard, Intendente de la VRegi6n (intvalparaiso@interior.gov.cl).

The South PacificRon Crocombe, 2001.

University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

Review by Frank Morin

Hard cover, b/w photographs, 713 pages plus bibliography andindex, ISBN 982-02-0154-3.

As STATED IN THE PREFACE, this book outline main trend inthe past and present of ocieties in the Pacific. It starts out witha chronology, a word about pelling, and notes on the geogra­phy of the region. Then the author move into Part I, Parame­ters. This section includes Chapters 1-3 on Place (EnvironmentDeterioration and Enhancement); People (Moving and Mixing);and Health.

Part 2 is titled Patterns, and include Chapters 4-6 on Lan­guage, Society, and Culture. Part 3, Perceptions, includes Chap­ters 7-10, on Creativity, Belief, Education, and Information. InPart 4, Property, Chapter 12-14, Crocombe di cus e Tenures,Production, Trade, and Restructuring.

Part 5, Power, includes Chapters 15-21, covering topics onGovernment, Independence, Identity, Birthright, Corruption.Governance, Coercion, Regionalism, and Globali m.

Part 6, Prospects, i Chapter 24 and it de cribes Futures:the choices facing the people of the Pacific today.

Finally, Part 7, Further Information, includes three appen­dices, Facts; Pacific Organizations and Service, and Journals.The book is an updated and rewritten ver ion of Crocombe'searlier books: The New South Pacific (1973), and three editionsof The South Pacific: An Introduction (1983, 1987, 1989). Foranyone interested in current problems on the islands of the Pa­cific, what the future holds for them, or what option they mayhave, this book contains a staggering amount of information.

Vol. 16 (2) October 2002