Today, with the wisdom of hindsight, Rapa Nui, or Easter Island as it was to become known, presents us with a model of the human spirit. The initial endeavour of migration and protohistoric ocean voyaging is remarkable in itself. The urge to explore and colonise has taken a small group of people, whose ancestors once originated in Africa, to one of the remotest parts of the world, but one which they came to refer to as the ‘navel of the world’.  The model demonstrates the ability to establish a religious framework which binded the society. But any society is not static, and the artistic endeavours on Easter Island throw light on the changing socio-economic conditions and on the changing balance of power.

However, this same model reveals another facet of the human spirit – greed, for a consumer society to be blinded by a given situation, and to practice rituals at the expense of its resources. And greed also when different cultures interact, one at the expense of the other. The sequence of events on Easter Island occurred over centuries, but there appears to be a critical period of 27 years - between 1837 when the Moais were standing, and 1864 when they had all been pulled down. As to why this happened, we can only speculate, but clearly there are lessons to be learnt. We are fortunate that Easter Island has survived its turbulent history, leaving us with a small but healthy culture which is home to some of the world’s most original and intriguing art.