No. 199
Hotu Matu'a
Meet them with Lyra- Where
- Rapa Nui
- Culture
- Rapa Nui
- Lived
- about 1200
- Why they matter
- The first chief who settled Easter Island in oral tradition.
- Fate
- Remembered in Rapa Nui oral history.
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Background
Hotu Matuꞌa was the legendary first settler and ariki mau ("supreme chief" or "king") of Easter Island and ancestor of the Rapa Nui people. Hotu Matuꞌa and his two-canoe (or one double-hulled canoe) colonising party were Polynesians from the now unknown land of Hiva (probably the Marquesas). They landed at Anakena beach and his people spread out across the island, sub-divided it between clans claiming descent from his sons, and lived for more than a thousand years in their isolated island home at the southeastern tip of the Polynesian Triangle.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.