The Navel of the World

There are few places in the world that have maintained as much intrigue, fascination, and interest like the remote island in the Pacific Ocean located at 27°9′0″S and 109°25.5′0″W.  Paasch-Eyland, Isla de Pascua, Easter Island, Rapa Nui, Rapa Iti, Te pito o te henua, Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka, are a few of the names which have been used to refer to this island oasis depending on the perspective and time in history.  On Easter Day, April 5, 1722, Jacob Roggeveen became the first known European visitor and gave it the Dutch name of Paasch-Eyland which translates to Isla de Pascua in Spanish and Easter Island in English, a name indicative of the holiday discovery. During the slave raids of the early 1860’s, the island began to be referenced by the inhabitants with the Polynesian name of Rapa Nui.  Later Thor Hyerdahl documented it to be Rapa Iti. The similar names referring to the original island and people of Rapa, a distant location in the Austral Islands group of Western Polynesia. The more recent names uncovered and published which seem to have a viable origin and carry the greatest cultural significance would be Te pito o te henua by Alphonse Pinart in 1877 and Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka by Thomas S. Barthel in 1974 with Pinart’s translation being, “the Navel of the World” and Barthel’s being, “the Little piece of Land of Hau Maka.” Considering “pito” or “piko” could translate to mean naval or small and “Maka” or mata could be a family name or referring to the eyes, it is difficult to know beyond -doubt precisely what was meant.