Inventing ‘Easter Island’ by Beverley Haun

Easter Island, or as it is more properly called, Rapa Nui, has stimulated imaginations in the Euro-American world since first visited by Europeans in the 18th century. Haun explores the forces at play as the early expeditions “invented” Easter Island, and traces the ways our Western propensity to mythologize and exoticize others tracks through to our present perceptions of the island and the islanders perception of themselves. A welcome antidote to Ronald Wright’s facile and misleading conjecture. Written from a Canadian perspective, with a supplement of particular interest to theorists and practitioners of postcolonial pedagogy.