Rapa Nui, An alive Culture:

Most of the tourists that visit Easter Island, come attracted by the "mystery" of their statues Moai, many don't relate these testimonies of megalithic splendor with current Rapa Nui people, as if these monuments had not been product of the culture of their ancestors, varied and imaginative Interpretations that they speak to each other from extraterrestrial until atlases arising.

These have in common to deny the multiple elements that unite the culture current Rapa Nui to these material testimonies, and that they grant them full sense and they express a slanted vision of their history and cultural development.

But the Rapa Nui culture continues alive, as the meaning that they possess for them the Moai, "Aringa Ora O Te Tupuna" the alive face of the ancestors… the oral tradition still remembers many details of this distant period, as the names of many statues, and histories associated to its carved in the quarry of Rano Raraku.

Without a doubt, that the most important cultural element that is still conserved in the Island is the own language "Vananga Rapa Nui" that in spite of possessing words of the Tahitian, Spanish, English and French among others; it maintains their structure grammar and phonology. The Rapanui is broadly used for the interactions among the Rapa Nui peoples, especially in the mature population, and it is used at the same time of Spanish in the local media and public events. In spite of the above-mentioned, it is concern the disuse of the language in the young generations, problem that is being approached in the main educational establishment of the Island, through of an immersion program in the Rapa Nui language.

Many Koros and Nuas (Old men and old women) of the Island, they still possess wide knowledge of the ancestral culture, like they are Histories, Legends and old Myths, Toponimic (that is very wide it is supposed that it embraces several thousands of names of places in the coast and interior), fishing knowledge and traditional agriculture, among other topics. To gather this testimonies is still a pending task, although they have already been carried out multiple works in these topics, the direct transmission for via oral it requires of a good domain of the ancestral language, where they acquire full sense and context.

The events that are carried out in the Island, are Also contributing to diffuse and to revalue the Rapa Nui Heritage, as the Festival of the song "Ka Tangi Te Ako", the Day of the Language Rapa Nui "Mahana O Te Re´o Rapa Nui", both during the month of November and the "Tapati Rapa Nui" or festival of Easter Island that takes place during the first pay period of February. Cause in those that the visitor will be able to appreciate varied cultural manifestations of the Island.