Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Samoan men haul a gift of a gutted pig to a wedding reception.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653551.JPG
  • A diver searches for tasty seafood in a coral reef in the National Park of Amer ican Samoa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653562.JPG
  • Father and son play in the bay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_663101.JPG
  • Fiatamali'i Leuta, wearing the tradtional lavalava wrap, teaches budding musici ans the trumpet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653553.JPG
  • During church service, a child in its mother's arms is amused by a parishioner in the next pew.
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  • A group of American Samoan teens nap under the trees near a beach.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653557.JPG
  • A warm glow comes from a meeting house at twilight in the American Samoan villa ge of Sa'ielele.  Even the local dogs show up at the social center to nip at th eir fleas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653555.JPG
  • Tuna cannery workers leave the factory at the end of their shift.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653561.JPG
  • A pick-game of baseball is played on a little-used airstrip on Ofu Island, Amer ican Samoa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6541_653559.JPG
  • Tourists photograph a Rapa Nui native dancer in body paint. Approximately 6,000 Rapa Nui live on Easter Island, which belongs to Chile. They numbered only 111 in 1877 after slave traders and disease decimated the population. <br />
Most people associate Easter Island with the famous, ancient statues known as moai and are unaware that descendants of the Polynesian culture inhabit the island today.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477351.JPG
  • A native dancer, a tourist and a dog at Ahu Tahia in modern day Easter Island.<br />
Situated near the town of Hanga Roa, the ahu sits near a canoe ramp and was restored by an archaeologist in 1974. <br />
It is perched alone on a ceremonial platform.<br />
Tahai is thought to be among the earliest ahu structures on the island dating back to 690 AD.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493965.JPG
  • Chilean newlyweds in festive paint and feathers celebrate marriage Rapa Nui style. Many of the 100,000 visitors to the island are from Chile which dwarf the less than 6,000 inhabitants.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477349.JPG
  • The Ahu Tautira statue looms behind a girl in a swimsuit.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493940.JPG
  • Children learn about at an ancient skull on a tour of the museum.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493982.JPG
  • A Rapanui dancer entertains tourists.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493952.JPG
  • Rapanui dancers perform for tourists.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493953.JPG
  • A Rapanui impresario takes a break at home while waiting for tourists to arrive at his restaurant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477019.JPG
  • A Rapanui dancer with body paint listens to native musicians.
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  • A Rapanui dancer with body paint listens to native musicians.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493970.JPG
  • A Rapanui dancer paints his body.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493950.JPG
  • Tourists with a Rapanui dance group.
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  • Tourists with a Rapanui dance group.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493948.JPG
  • A Rapanui dancer with body paint listens to native musicians.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493970-1.JPG
  • A Rapanui sands wooden Moai for sale to tourists.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493957.JPG
  • A Rapa Nui man with his Belgian girlfriend live in a one-room house that has electricity but no indoor plumbing. The ocean is close by and Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477350.JPG
  • An ancient Moai statue stands silently under the stars and night sky on Easter Island, the most remote inhabited island in the world. <br />
Monolithic figures were carved by the Rapa Nui people between approximately 1250 and 1700 A.D.. Many of the more than 900 statues are still at a quarry and some are lie along the roads. But hundreds of the 33 foot high moai weighing more than 80 tons  of volcanic tuff were transported and set on stone platforms around the island's perimeter. <br />
<br />
It is believed that the statues may have "walked" to their destinations by workers using ropes to rock them side to side although some archaeologists disagree thinking they may have been rolled on logs although the island is now treeless.<br />
<br />
The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles). Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai, tall statues carved out of rock that stand guard
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  • Tourists dive on Easter Island's reef encounter a moai that was made for a 1994 Hollywood movie and then sunk offshore. The reef is healthy, although it is overfished. <br />
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world, 2300 miles from Chile and the nearest Polynesian center the opposite direction is Tahiti, 2600 miles to the west.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477347.JPG
  • Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world.  The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles).  Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai everywhere along the coast and littered abandoned in the center along the Moai roads used to transport them.  Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.  They were adept sailors, explorers, colonizers and their experience taught them the best way to escape war or famine was to sail east - to go windward in search of new islands.  There is no evidence that a 2nd group reached the island in early history as Heyerdall alledges – in fact it points to the opposite.  Easter Island had military rule until 1965 and had cashless societies of fishing and farming that have since been broken apart by independence and a dependence on tourism.  Rapa Nui are strict with marriage records and it is possible to trace this culture's roots to 30 or so couples who survived 19th century.
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  • Ahu Akahanga – This small Moai in the blue light of late evening shows the early style for crafting Moais – he has really big eyes – shorter proportions - and it may have been associated with the Ahu behind it at this place over the ocean.  This area on the south coast had a higher population density and had more Moai.  The early statues were more variable in form… later they started to look more alike.<br />
<br />
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world.  The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles).  Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai everywhere along the coast toppled on their Ahu’s and littered abandoned in the center along the Moai roads used to transport them.  Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.  They were adept sailors, explorers, colonizers and their experience taught them the best way to escape war or famine was to sail east, to windward in search of new islands.  There is no evidence that a 2nd group reached the island in early history as Heyerdall alledges – in fact it points to the opposite.  Easter Island had military rule until 1965 and had cashless societies of fishing and farming that have since been broken apart by independence and a dependence on tourism.  Rapanui incest laws are strict with everybody tracing roots to 30 or so couples who survived 19th century Peruvian slave raiding and epidemics.
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  • A petroglyph of a face at Ahu Tongariki. Often overlooked because of the more visible moai statues on Easter Island, rock art petroglyphs are more sophisticated and unique in design.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493932.JPG
  • A petroglyph with a birdman motif that is half man and half bird and connected to cult events at the sacred site Orango.<br />
The purpose of the Birdman competition was to obtain the first egg of the season from an offshore islet, Motu Nui. Contestants descended the sheer cliffs from Orongo and swam to Motu Nui where they awaited the coming of the birds. The first to procure an egg became the winner. He presented it to his sponsor who then was declared Birdman for that year, an important status position.
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  • A single restored moai stands watch at Ahu Tongarik and serene Hanga Nui Bay.<br />
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu and its moais were toppled during the island's civil wars, and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai, including one that weighs eighty-six tons, the heaviest ever erected on the island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493988.JPG
  • Restored moai with topknots on Akakena Beach. Two of the seven moai have deteriorated that stand above a white sand beach. Archaeological value is high, however, because it was the first ancient city on the island and founded by the first king of  Rapa Nui, Ariki Jotu Matua.
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  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki on the east side of the volcanic island. Lined up on a platform with their backs facing the Pacific Ocean, the monolithic statues wear hats on top of their carved, minimalist human faces.<br />
Photo is shot from camera attached to a kite and triggered by remote before the use of drones.
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  • Moai display in Santiago, Chile, airport.
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  • A couple stroll beneath power lines toward moai statues at Ahu Tahai.
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  • A wedding is celebrated Rapanui style.
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  • Maoi replicas near a hotel.
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  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
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  • Restored moai with topknots on Akakena Beach.
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  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki. RANDY OLSON Photographer.
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  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
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  • An ancient Moai statue and wild horses on Rano Raraku crater.
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  • An ancient Moai statue on a hillside at night.
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  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494003.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493935.JPG
  • A restored Maoi at Ahu Nau Nau.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493999.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493992.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493990.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477348.JPG
  • A moai statue at Ahu Akahanga.
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  • Restored moai stand watch over landscapers mowing grass.
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  • A restored moai at Ahu Tongariki.
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