Eco-Polis / Rapa Nui – Snap Shot No. 02: A Culture in Peril

Highlighted by a ceremony including typical local foods, indigenous costumes and traditional dancing, the Eco-Polis project team was hosted for a reception by a group of island residents, including descendents of the most recent ruling family of the island clans. This group of artisans and musicians, called El Baúl del To Tahonga is working to rediscover, preserve and promote expression of the authentic Rapa Nui cultural heritage, much of which was lost or forgotten over the course of the last century and-a-half due to cataclysmic population loss as a result of disease epidemics and slave trading raids. The indigenous people’s strong connection to the land and their reverence for the forces of nature (e.g. the sea, the wind, wildlife, etc.) underscore the importance of development programs that also protect the islands fragile natural environment. Along with local public officials and citizen stakeholders, El Baúl is one of the groups with whom the team will be cooperating in order to find ways of incorporating cultural heritage and environmental preservation efforts into the economic development, infrastructure improvement and social programs that will be proposed.

Gregory Delaune, ASLA, AICP
Direction Committee & Contract Professor, Eco-Polis Master

Eco-Polis / Rapa Nui - Snap Shot No. 01: A Dis-Enchanted Island

The project team of thirty researchers and professionals from the EcoPolis International Master arrived in Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) on August 21st, 2010. Cooperating with local residents, economic stakeholders and public officials, the three weeks of on-site work will focus on understanding the local cultural, environmental and economic context in order to generate a series of integrated policy proposals and pilot projects to share and discuss with the community of Rapa Nui in order to follow a path towards sustainable economic development that protects the island’s environmental quality while celebrating and preserving its unique cultural heritage.

During the first full day in residence on the island, the work group visited the major archeological sites of the Moai, the monolithic stone heads for which the island is famous. These ancient stone sentinels, carved by the original residents from the native volcanic stone in homage of their ancestors, have stoically stood watch over the island for centuries, silent witnesses to both the glory and carnage that have marked its turbulent history. In contrast to the majestic beauty of the Moai, the work group also visited the island’s major land fill, a sobering reminder of the island’s struggle to adapt to the realities of living in a contemporary global community. The land fill is one of two that receive the more than seven tons of refuse generated daily by the combined activities of the 4,900 residents and 70,000 tourists that visit the island annually. This mountain of domestic, commercial and industrial waste is just one reminder of the many problems (e.g. water supplies, energy generation, cultural heritage preservation and lack of administrative autonomy) that have accompanied the economic development and rapid population growth that the island has experienced during the last two decades.

Over the course of the next three weeks, the work group will confront the daunting task of collecting and processing as much information as possible about the local existing conditions, identifying innovative project solutions, and generating public policy proposals that are economically, environmentally and culturally integrated at the local level and that can become global models for sustainable economic development. The final written and illustrated report will be presented to local officials and community stakeholders on September 9th and will remain available for download on the EcoPolis website.

www.masterecopolis.it

Gregory Delaune, ASLA, AICP
Direction Committee & Contract Professor, Eco-Polis Master