Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour, and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau.
History
In 1868 HMS Topaze anchored off Hanga Roa. At the time the Government of the area was known as the Conseil d’Etat. It was made up of Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, Gaspard Zuhmbohm and four chiefs from the Miru clan.Upon Chile's claim of the island, the Rapa Nui were forced in Hanga Roa, and the rest of the land was leased to a sheep farm. For much of the twentieth century, the rest of the island was leased to the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua and closed to the Rapa Nui.
From December 12, 1934, to January 2, 1935, a merchant navy training ship anchored in the bay of Hanga Roa, allowing the landing of a Franco-Belgian scientific expedition. This expedition took back a statue, now preserved in the Royal [Museums of Art and History] in Brussels, as well as a monumental head offered to the museum of the Trocadéro Palace in Paris. The inhabitants were not able to give their opinion on the departure of this statue, which was negotiated between the Franco-Belgian scientists and the Chilean colonial authorities.
Until 1953, most of the territory, under the control of the Chilean authorities, was given over to sheep owned by the Williamson–Balfour company. The indigenous inhabitants, for their part, were confined to the island’s only settlement, the town of Hanga Roa, and were forbidden to leave it. Hanga Roa has been compared to a ghetto by several Oceanist researchers. From 1953 to 1966, Hanga Roa and the rest of the island were under the control of the Chilean Navy.
The church of Hanga Roa and the parish of Santa Cruz were founded in December 1937. Its first parish priest was Father Sebastian Englert. Although he celebrated Mass in Latin, he preached, heard confessions, and catechized the faithful in the Rapa Nui language. He also translated popular Catholic devotions into Rapa Nui and encouraged indigenous religious singing.
In 1965, the United States Army undertook the construction of an airstrip near the village of Mataveri, close to Hanga Roa. In 1986, the United States extended the runway so that it could receive the American space shuttle in the event of an emergency landing for flights taking off from Vandenberg [Space Force Base|Vandenberg Air Force Base] in California, but it was never used for that purpose. The following year, Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva promulgated Law No. 16,411 creating the Department of Easter Island, which also made it possible to grant Chilean citizenship to all the island’s inhabitants, along with the right to vote. This law also established the creation of an island municipality and formalized the installation of various public services of the Chilean state in the territory. The island was then attached to the Valparaíso Region of Chile. The first commercial air links between Santiago de Chile, Hanga Roa, and Papeete began in 1967 and were operated by the national airline LAN Chile.
During the last decades of the 20th century, the modest village of Hanga Roa was transformed into a small town with urban facilities: a market, a school, a church, and later hotels, a bank, a hospital, and various other administrative and commercial buildings appeared.
In 1999, Hanga Roa was described as “a large town with widely spaced houses, of which only the central streets were paved.” Many cars circulate in the town, as well as on the road leading to Anakena Beach, and according to the governor of Easter Island, the town is the Chilean municipality with the highest number of motor vehicles per inhabitant.
Some disagreements between the government of Chile and the Rapa Nui have led the locals with ancestral roots to "take over" many hotels in the city. For the locals, it is a way to draw the line between the Chilean government's policy-making in the island, and the Rapa Nui's ancestral rights on their land. In 2011, the Schiess family, owner of the Hanga Roa Hotel, donated back the land of the hotel to the Rapa Nui, but retained a 30-year management lease of the hotel. A week before, the Schiess family had personally shipped a special force squad from the Carabineros de Chile to remove the locals who squatted the hotel. A prior police intervention in August 2010 had led to 25 Rapa Nui protesters being wounded.
Geography
The island's main avenue, Avenida Atamu Tekena, is the heart of the town. Many hotels, restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies are found alongside this road. In 1998, the road was renamed after nineteenth century Rapanui king Atamu Te Kena; it had previously been named after Captain Policarpo Toro, the Chilean Naval officer who annexed Easter Island to Chile in 1888. The island's museum, and also the Roman Catholic "Holy Cross Church", are located in the center of town. With the advent of the Internet and the expansion of communication services by the Chilean government, many internet cafes and automated teller machines have appeared in recent years.Population
In 1914, the population of Hanga Roa was just 250 and the rest of the island was inhabited by large populations of sheep.The population of Easter Island was last measured at 7,750 people. The main town of Easter Island is Hanga Roa. Its population was last measured at 7,322 residents. This means that roughly that 95% of the island's population live in this city.
Economy
Tourism
The town has a number of hotels and guesthouses which cater for tourists who come to see the island's World Heritage Sites, in particular the famous moai statues. Hanga Roa and the surrounding area have a number of moai, but there are larger ones elsewhere on the island. Total capacity is about 2,500 beds as of 2022, ranging from camping sites to luxury hotels, including hotel Hanga Roa.The Ahu Tahai archaeological complex is within a walking distance from the city's center. Every year, the city is home to the farandula cultural festival, a months-long event when the locals sculpt giant wooden statues. The celebration includes a habit where people get nude and bath in clay that covers their bodies.
Other activities
In addition to tourism, other businesses in Hanga Roa include fishing, farming and administration. Several Chilean government departments including the Chilean Navy maintain a presence on the island.The harbour has a shipping service to Valparaíso, Chile. In April 2018, the freighter Lago Icalma, parked in the port of Hanga Roa, was struck by a barge. A fuel tank was ruptured, leaking diesel fuel in the waters of the port. The surrounding beaches were also blackened by the spread of the black liquid.