The Rapa Nui people on Easter Island are mobilizing to preserve their heritage and, in the latest twist, have refused to loan one of their renowned Moai statues for an exhibition in Paris. During a referendum in early March, 89% of the islanders, most ethnic Polynesians, opposed transporting the ancient monolithic human rock figure 13,000 kilometers from the South Pacific to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, where they were set to be put on display April 26-May 9.
復活節島上的拉帕努伊人全體總動員，以保護他們的文化遺產，最新轉折是：他們拒絕出借其中一尊赫赫有名的摩艾石像到巴黎展覽。在3月初一項公民投票中，89%島民，其中大部分是玻里尼西亞原住民，反對從南太平洋千里迢迢，運送這尊古老巨大的石像，到1萬3000公里外的巴黎杜樂麗花園，於4月26日到5月9日展出。
The mysterious basalt sculptures with outsized heads were made some 500 to 750 years ago and have become a symbol of Easter Island, a territory annexed to Chile in the late 19th century. Chile's National Monuments Council, which had initially backed loaning the Moai, said it would make its final decision April 14. In fact, the Council has already decided on April 14 to respect the wishes of the inhabitants of Chile's Easter Island not to take that Moai statue to Paris for exhibition outside the Louvre.
神祕的玄武岩雕像頭部超大，約於500至750年前塑造，已成為復活節島一大象徵，該島於19世紀末歸併智利領土。智利國家古蹟理事會原本支持出借摩艾石像，但公投後表示，將於4月14日作出最後決定。事實上，該會已於4月14日決定，尊重復活節島原住民的意願，不出借那尊摩艾石像到巴黎羅浮宮外展出。
Italy's Mare Nostrum and France's Louis Vuitton launched the project to haul the Moai across oceans for public view in Paris two years ago. They aimed to introduce the island's culture to Europe in exchange for helping preserve its heritage with a fund that initially included half a million dollars. Archeologists and logistics coordinators had scoped out the site and preselected a statue five meters tall that weighed 13 tons. They had planned to insure it for 2 million dollars.
這項計畫是由義大利名牌Mare Nostrum（意指地中海）和法國名牌路易威登共同於兩年前發起，要讓摩艾石像橫渡大洋，到巴黎展出。他們的目的是引介復活節島的文化到歐洲，換取歐洲成立一項基金，以幫助維護其文化遺產，該基金一開始約有50萬美元。考古學家和後勤物流管控人員，曾先勘查地點並預選一尊5公尺高、13噸重的雕像，他們還計畫為它投保200萬美元意外險。
The island's 4,000 inhabitants were informed about the project during public meetings before a referendum was held under the auspices of the International Labour Organization's convention on indigenous people. Out of 900 islanders who responded, 789 said they opposed sending the Moai to France, while 94 said they supported the move.
島上4000名原住民在公民會議上被告知這項計畫，並在國際勞工組織原住民公約贊助下舉行全民公投，結果有 900名島民回應，其中789人反對送摩艾石像到法國，只有94人支持這項舉措。
The islanders' landslide refusal is an example of how inhabitants of this isolated piece of paradise are increasingly defending a heritage and ecosystem they say is under threat. They have expressed worry at the 70,000 tourists who flood the tiny island each year and a growing number of immigrants from continental Chile some 3,500 kilometers away. Authorities are also concerned about the large number of visitors expected for the solar eclipse set for July 11.
島民一面倒的拒絕是個案例，顯示與世隔絕的這片樂土上的人民，愈來愈勇於捍衛他們的文物和飽受威脅的生態系統。他們擔心，每年有7萬遊客湧入小島，另外，從3500公里外智利本土移民島上的人口愈來愈多。有關當局也擔心，7月11日的日蝕將湧入大批遊客。
Last year, islanders symbolically closed their island - which is just 24 by 12 kilometers - for 48 hours, blocking the Mataveri airport and urging increased awareness of their migration problem. In October, they managed to obtain guarantees that the Chilean constitution would be revised to reflect those concerns.
去年島民象徵性關閉這個12公里寬、24公里長的小島48小時，同時封鎖馬塔維里國際機場，敦促有關當局正視移民問題。去年10月，他們總算得到保證，智利將修憲反映島民關切的問題。
It was supposed to be a first step in controlling the throngs of tourists and migrants. Since September 2009, every visitor to the tiny speck in the Pacific, the remote island and home to famous giant stone statues, has been obliged to fill in a card detailing their movements. That way, indigenous leaders and Chilean authorities, who administer the island, could in theory monitor and curb the influx before it becomes too damaging. Chile's supreme court, however, has now ruled that the Special Visitor's Card violates the constitutional right to freedom of movement. The ruling has dismayed the 2,500 Rapa Nui people who feel overrun by the 70,000 visitors to the island every year, a fivefold increase from just a decade ago.
這應該是控制成群結隊的遊客和移民的第一步。2009年9月以來，每位走訪太平洋這個超迷你島嶼的訪客，來到這個偏遠島嶼兼知名巨大石像的家園，都會被迫填寫一張卡片，詳細說明他們的一舉一動。如此一來，原住民領袖和管理該島的智利當局，理論上可以監測和制止遊客不斷湧入，免得造成太嚴重的傷害。但智利最高法院現在裁定，遊客專用卡違反憲法規定民眾有行動自由的權利。這項裁決使2500名拉帕努伊人感到失望，他們覺得已被島上每年高達 7萬名遊客攻占踐踏，這已經是10年前的5倍。
Now, they have focused their efforts on preserving the Moai. “You can understand their reaction,” said Luis Carlos Parentini, a historian specializing in indigenous communities. “Throughout their history, they saw much of their heritage disappear. They could be suspecting that what leaves the island won't come back. And they don't have much to gain out of this, as the island is already immensely popular.”
如今，他們集中全力捍衛摩艾石像。「你可以理解他們的反應。」專門研究原住民部落的歷史學家帕倫提尼說：「縱觀整個歷史，他們眼睜睜看著其大半文化遺產消失。他們懷疑，不管什麼東西，一旦離開島嶼就回不來了。他們未蒙其利，反受其害，因為這個島已經太受歡迎了。」
And the islanders may have good reason to be skeptical. A smaller Moai standing 1.2 meters tall and weighing two tonnes that was offered to a head of state in 1927 traveled from Argentina to Europe for 80 years before it was finally returned in 2006.
島民有此疑慮，其來有自。一尊1.2公尺高、2噸重的較小摩艾石像，1927年獻給國家元首，在從阿根廷運往歐洲途中竟走了80年，最後才在2006年送回。
Scholars assume that the carving and erection of the moai derived from an idea rooted in similar practices found elsewhere in Polynesia. Archaeological and iconographic analysis indicates that the statue cult was based on an ideology of male, lineage-based authority incorporating anthropomorphic symbolism. Yet the statues were more than symbols. To the people who erected and used them, they were repositories of sacred spirit. The irony is that Easter Island is a symbol of ecological and civilizational collapse: the ancient, sophisticated society which built the statues all but vanished, it is thought, because of environmental degradation.
學者認為，雕刻和豎立摩艾石像，發想於植根玻里尼西亞其他地方類似做法的相同理念。考古和肖像分析顯示，這種石像崇拜，濫觴於以男性宗族為基礎的權力、結合擬人化象徵意義的意識形態。但雕像不只是象徵符號，對豎立和使用它們的原住民，石像是神聖的精神寶庫。諷刺的是，復活節島也是生態和文明崩潰的象徵：一個古老先進、雕刻石像的社會消失，一般認為肇因於環境惡化。
Picture shows a Moai in the foreground with several others over a platform on the Easter Island.
照片前景為一尊摩艾石像，它和其他數尊石像散布復活節島一個平台上。（法新社）