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Moisés Tuʻu Hereveri

Moisés Jacob Tu‘u Hereveri (c. 1873 – 3 September 1925) was elected ‘ariki (king) of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) from 1901 until 1902. He was the last Rapa Nui to claim the traditional kingship in the early 20th-century. However, he is not remembered as the last king instead his predecessor Riro Kāinga is generally regarded as the last king, although neither held much power.[note 1] Variation of his family name included Hereveri, Here Veri, Veri-Veri, Beri-Beri, Tueri-Beri, Tueriveri, or Tueriveri.[3]

Moisés Tuʻu Hereveri
Titular King of Rapa Nui
Reign1901–1902
PredecessorEnrique Ika
SuccessorValentino Riroroko Tuki
Bornc. 1873
Haapape, Mahina, Kingdom of Tahiti
Died3 September 1925
Easter Island, Chile
SpouseParapina Uka o Tu’a a Vaka
IssueMateo Hereveri Vaka
others
Names
Moisés Jacob Tu‘u Hereveri
FatherAkutino Hereveri
MotherMargarita Vaiatare
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Biography

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Hereveri was born, of Rapa Nui descent, in 1873,[note 2] at Haapape, in the French Protectorate of the Kingdom of Tahiti, now near present-day Point Venus, Mahina, French Polynesia.[5][6] His father was Here Veri, baptized Agustín (Akutino), also known as Akutino Hereveri (1851–1894), and his mother was Vai a Tare, baptized Margarita, also known as Maria Te Vai a Tare (1840–?). He was baptized Moite or Moisés. His family was part of the Miru clan, specifically the Miru Hamea branch.[7][8]

Hereveri's family was part of the diaspora community of Rapa Nui which settled in Tahiti.[5] On 6 June 1871, half of the Rapa Nui population, around 277 islanders, followed the Father Hippolyte Roussel and Brother Théodule Escolan, French Catholic missionaries of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to Tahiti and Mangareva after disputes between the missionaries and rancher Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier.[9][10][11] His parents would have been one of the 108 Rapa Nui who followed Brother Escolan and were employed in British businessman John Brander's plantation on Tahiti, or the 67 islanders sent by Dutrou-Bornier to join the workers in October 1871.[9]

Back on Easter Island, the penultimate King Atamu Tekena ceded the island to Chile (represented by Captain Policarpo Toro) on 9 September 1888. However, the treaty of annexation was never ratified by Chile and Toro's colony failed. The Chilean government abandoned the settlement in 1892 due to political troubles on the mainland, which was embroiled in civil war, and this prompted the Rapa Nui to reassert their independence.[12] The Miru clan representative, Siméon Riro Kāinga, was elected the position of ‘Ariki or King of Rapa Nui left vacant by the death of Atamu Tekena in August 1892.[13][14]

The Rapa Nui unsuccessfully attempted to reclaim indigenous sovereignty in the absence of direct Chilean control from 1892 to 1896. However, Chile reasserted its claim, and the island was later leased to Enrique Merlet and his ranching company. Alberto Sánchez Manterola was appointed Merlet's representative and also appointed Chile's maritime sub-delegate. They restricted the islanders' access to most of their land except a walled-off settlement at Hanga Roa, which they were not allowed to leave without permission. The young king attempted to protest the company's abuse but died under suspicious circumstances at Valparaíso.[12][15] News of the king's death did not reach the island until March 1899. Subsequently, Sánchez declared the native kingship abolished.[16][17] According to the accounts of Bienvenido de Estella, Sánchez declared to the islanders, “Ya no hay más rey en la isla. ¡Yo mando!”.[18] He later wrote in 1921, “...desde que se supo la muerte del Rey puse mano firme para terminar con esta dinastía y creo haberlo conseguido porque no se habló más del sucesor de Riro Roco.”[19]

Riro Kāinga has been generally referred to as the last king of Easter Island. However, two other candidates for the kingship existed after him. Enrique Ika was proclaimed king on 8 January 1900. Moisés Tuʻu Hereveri was elected king in 1901. Hereveri was elected with the permission of Sánchez's successor Horacio Cooper White, who was considered much more a despotic administrator than his predecessor. Cooper wanted to the discredit a rebellion led by Chilean shepherd Manuel A. Vega who had married Véronique Mahute, Riro's widow. Riro was "crowned" in a ceremony presided by Catholic catechist Nicolás Pakarati Urepotahi with Cooper in attendance. The new king led an unsuccessful rebellion influenced by the Catholic catechist Angata, another member of the Miru clan. The conflict was spurred when the Chilean guards began kidnapping married Rapa Nui women and keeping them at the company's headquarters in Mataveri while their husbands worked in the field. Hereveri commanded the Rapa Nui men in rescuing their wives and skirmishes with the company followed. The Rapa Nui pushed the forces of Cooper to Mataveri. The rebellion was quelled on 19 July 1902 with the arrival of the Chilean Naval corvette Baquedano.[20][21][22]

Hereveri married Uka o Tu’a a Vaka (born in 1872), baptized Balbina (Parapina), also known as Parapina Avaka, who was the daughter of Tomenika a Vakatukuonge, another indigenous Catholic catechist who lived at the islands leprosery and was allegedly one of the last Rapa Nui to understand the rongorongo script.[7][23][24][25] His descendants bear the surname Hereveri.[7] According to the published sources of Bienvenido de Estella and J. I. Vives Solar, Hereveri was exiled by the Chilean authority from the island after his unsuccessful revolt in 1902 for a decade. It was alleged that he served a career as a midshipman in the Chilean Navy and journeyed around the world in 1908.[20][7] Rapa Nui historian Cristián Moreno Pakarati places doubt on the account of Hereveri's deportation because there is no document to indicate it. He also called the account of his naval career erroneous and possibly convoluted by the experience of his son Mateo Hereveri Vaka as a cabin boy on a Chilean naval ship.[20] Hereveri died at Easter Island, on 3 September 1925.[20][5][4] Pakarati noted that Enrique Ika and Moisés Tu‘u Hereveri have been unjustly forgotten by Rapa Nui historiography.[20][22]

In 1902, Chile appointed Rapa Nui cultural informant Juan Tepano as cacique in an attempt to end indigenous resistance. A decade later, Angata led another unsuccessful rebellion against the ranching company in 1914. It was crushed when the Chilean navy arrested the ringleaders of the revolt.[21][26] The kingship remained vacant for a century after Ika and Hereveri. An independence movement has continued on the island.[27] In 2011, Riro Kāinga's grandson, Valentino Riroroko Tuki, declared himself king of Rapa Nui.[28][29]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Kerekorio Manu Rangi, the last undisputed ‘ariki mau, died during an outbreak of tuberculosis in 1867.[1][2] Although Riro Kāinga and his predecessor Atamu Tekena held the title of king, their power and legitimacy in comparison with their predecessors are doubted. Historian Alfred Métraux wrote,

    Although the islanders of to-day speak of the late kings, Atamu Te Kena and Riroroko, as if they were really kings, informants make it clear that they had very little in common with the ariki of olden days. Their power was of an indefinite, dubious nature, and they seem to have enjoyed none of the prerogatives of former ariki. Perhaps their only claim to the title lay in their descent-line; both belonged to the Miru group. Possibly if native civilization had continued, they might have been true kings. Personal pretension, supported by Chilean officers who needed a responsible intermediary to deal with the population, might have contributed toward the restoration of power to this fictitious and ephemeral royalty.

    — Métraux 1937, p. 42
  2. ^ Another source stated that Hereveri was born c. 1861.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Fischer 2005, pp. 91–92, 99, 101, 147.
  2. ^ Pakarati 2015a, pp. 4–5.
  3. ^ Cristino & Fuentes 2011, pp. 68–69, 71, 81–83, 140–142.
  4. ^ a b Cristino & Fuentes 2011, p. 68.
  5. ^ a b c Muñoz 2015, p. 20.
  6. ^ Tryon 1970, p. 140.
  7. ^ a b c d Cristino & Fuentes 2011, pp. 68–69.
  8. ^ Muñoz 2014, pp. 31–72.
  9. ^ a b Muñoz 2015, p. 6–7.
  10. ^ Fischer 2005, p. 113.
  11. ^ Routledge 1919, p. 208.
  12. ^ a b Gonschor 2008, pp. 66–70.
  13. ^ Gonschor 2008, pp. 66–70, 286–287.
  14. ^ Pakarati 2015a, pp. 8–10.
  15. ^ Fischer 2005, pp. 152–154.
  16. ^ Gonschor 2008, p. 69.
  17. ^ Pakarati 2015b, pp. 3–4.
  18. ^ Pakarati 2015a, p. 14.
  19. ^ Pakarati 2015b, p. 4.
  20. ^ a b c d e Pakarati 2015a, pp. 13–16.
  21. ^ a b Pakarati 2015b, pp. 3–14.
  22. ^ a b Simonetti, Marcelo (12 November 2011). "El último Rey de la Isla de Pascua". Enlace Mapuche Internacional. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  23. ^ Pakarati 2015a, pp. 7, 13–16.
  24. ^ Hotus 1988, pp. 29, 164, 357.
  25. ^ Fischer 1997, pp. 131–132; Fischer 2005, pp. 138–141, 232
  26. ^ Gonschor 2008, pp. 66–70; Fischer 2005, pp. 155, 166–172; Van Tilburg 2003, pp. 148–163; Delsing 2004, pp. 26–28
  27. ^ Gonschor 2008, pp. 126–132, 185–193.
  28. ^ Simonetti, Marcelo (16 October 2011). "Los dominios del rey". La Tercera. Santiago. Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  29. ^ Nelsen, Aaron (30 March 2012). "A Quest for Independence: Who Will Rule Easter Island's Stone Heads?". Time. New York City. Archived from the original on 27 March 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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  • Estella, Bienvenido de (1920). Los misterios de la Isla de Pascua. Santiago: Imprenta Cervantes.
  • Vives Solar, J.I. (1920). El último rey de Rapa-Nui. Revista Sucesos 932.
Titles in pretence
Vacant
Title last held by
Enrique Ika 		King of Rapa Nui
1901–1902 		Vacant
Title next held by
Valentino Riroroko Tuki
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