Sculptures.org.nz

Image by Keith Miller

Moai

Artist	Tevo Pakarati
Year	2004
Location	In Dorrie Leslie Park, on Queens Drive, Lyall Bay.
Tour directions	-- Car/Bike -- From the Doo Doos continue following the coastal road. Take the tunnel underneath the runway. Keep following the Lyall Bay parade and later Queens Drive towards the South. Just after passing the bus turn on the right, The Dorrie Leslie Park entrance is on your left.

Rapa Nui vs Māori

The Rapa Nui language is closest to Marquesan (a.o. Hawaiian) morphologically, although its phonology has more in common with New Zealand Māori.

Sculpture background

Maoi are the traditional sculptures of Rapa Nui (Easter Islands). This 3.2 tonne Hinueara stone moai was a gift from Chile to represent the frienschip between Chile and New ZEealand and to celebrate the connection between the tangat whenua of Rapa Nui and Aotearoa New Zealand. It stands alone on the south Wellington Coast, looking out to sea.

Moai, or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku (a volcanic crater in the Rapa Nui National Park). The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna).