Rapanui and Chile, a debate on self-determination: a notional and legal basis for the political decolonisation of Easter Island Master Thesis in Pacific Studies, PASI 591 Victoria University of Wellington, VUW, New Zealand 40,000 words app. Rodrigo A. Gómez S. 1 Acknowledgements I am grateful to New Zealand Aid Development Scholarship, NZAID, for giving me the opportunity to go as far as the intellectual capacities were capable. Without financing two years in New Zealand doing postgraduate studies would be unimaginable. Thanks Teresia Teaiwa and Tony Angelo for supervising this thesis. Copyright All rights are not reserved. Every part of the author‟s writing may be reproduced, retrieved or transmitted without the permission of the author but with due acknowledgment. 2 Contents Proem Rapa 5 News from Rapanui, May 2010 6 Por Curpa deros Chirenos 7 Manifiesto by Victor Jara 8 Prologue 9 Structure of the thesis 10 Chapter One: A Rapanui place in Oceania The self in Rapanui 12 The self in Oceania 16 The self in Oceanic epistemology 20 Chapter Two: Sovereignty and land ownership from the Easter[n] angle Generalities 22 Tangata whenua resilience, Indigenism and alternative Global Politics 26 The western coin of Ownership and Sovereignty: Its origins and characters 27 Deconstructing sovereignty and land ownership 32 The dichotomous Zeitgeist: The Greco-Roman tradition and the distinctions of Roman Law 38 The Roman concept of individual ownership in modern civil law: The human will and univocal possession 42 Rationalism, codification, individualism and property 44 The Polynesian dichotomy: The “loose” possessive 46 The “loose” Polynesian ownership and the Maori “flexible” law 48 The Mana and Tapu philosophy: the implicit coercion 51 Common or collective ownership: The misunderstanding 53 Reframing classical depictions of Polynesia land tenure system, and the legal nature of the Polynesian “land governance” 57 By way of conclusion of chapter two 61 3 Chapter three: Redefining the legal status of RapaNui under international law Preface 62 The modes of acquisition 66 The Deed of 1888 and the cession of sovereignty 68 Rapanui Statehood 74 Acquisitive Prescription 76 Utis Possidetis 84 The Easter Island Act No 16.441 of 1966 85 The Private law type of the proto-colonial period (1888-1966) 86 Reframing the Rapanui people: Nationality rather than ethnicity 88 The right of political self-determination of nations 92 Chapter four: The OAS decolonisation Preamble 99 Aims 102 International and municipal arenas 104 Transformation, incorporation and the ipso facto binding 106 IACHR and The Court 108 The extent of Chile‟s recognition and the Advisory Opinion OC-1/82 110 Hierarchy of formal sources of international law 112 Dualism and Monism 113 The article 5 of the CPR 115 The right of political self-determination in the CPR 117 Building the OAS decolonisation 124 The requisite of internal remedies exhaustion 128 Potential mechanisms to allege the right of self-determination before the municipal courts of Chile 130 Epilogue Oceania Mysticism 134 Oceania Broadening 134 The Rapañol rebellion 135 Appendix 1, the Deed of Cession and Proclamation 1888 137 Appendix 2, Antipoetic fieldwork 138 4 Rapa El rugir de las olas del incesante clamor en aguas transparentes y desordenadas con despertares irreverentes e inaprensibles de llamadas sencillas pero inmoderadas y a veces cuando cansados condenados a soñar de ser libres al fin 5 News from Rapanui, May 2010 6 Por Curpa deros Chirenos (Transcription of an audio-recorded conversation obtained from the beginning of the song Eromai tepu of unknown editor, authorship or copyright. This extract was part of a larger meeting that took place in the early 2000s at the Governor‟s offices) Piru: …por curpa deros chirenos! Official: pero si usted no quiere ser chileno, renuncie a Chile! Piru: pero si yo no soy chireno nunca dirigí chire!... nunca en mi vida! y ustede‘ viene‘ a tomar la posesione‘ con este?! Official: Estamos respetándonos… Piru: Dónde señor! Usted pidió autorización a nosotros lo‘ Rapanui? Aquí están lo‘ Rapanui! Aquí somos ministro de nuestra tierra… [¡Quien soy tu? pa‘ venir a repartir, cosas que no son tuyo!] somos ministros de nuestra tierra, de herencia tenemos herencia heredera, ancestrales señores! y usted los chirenos…no tienen curtura! Por favor, Saca tu bandera! ¡Saca tu gente! Súbete al avión… Lárguese de acá! 7 Manifiesto by Víctor Jara. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en8yqVxuT-U Yo no canto por cantar I don‘t sing just for singing, ni por tener buena voz nor for having good voice canto porque la guitarra, tiene sentido y razón I chant because the guitar has sense and reason tiene corazón de tierra y alas de palomita it has heart of land and wings of little dove es como el agua bendita, santigua glorias y it is like the holy water, it blesses glories and penas sorrows aquí se encajo mi canto, como dijera Violeta here my singing gets stuck as Violeta said guitarra trabajadora con olor a primavera working guitar with spring que no es guitarra de ricos ni cosa que se smell parezca which is not a guitar of rich people or mi canto es de los andamios para alcanzar las something alike estrellas my chant comes from the scaffoldings for que el canto tiene sentido cuando palpita en las reaching the stars venas the singing has sense when it beats in the veins del que morirá cantando las verdades of who will die singing the truthful truths verdaderas not the shooting flatteries nor the foreign fames no las lisonjas fugaces ni las famas extranjeras but the chant of a strip, up to the bottom of the sino el canto de una lonja hasta el fondo de la earth tierra there where everything arrives, and where ahí donde llega todo y donde todo comienza everything commences canto que ha sido valiente siempre será canción chant which has been brave, it will always be nueva. new song. 8 Prologue Atención, señoras y señores, un momento de atención: Volved un instante la cabeza hacia este lado de la republica, Olvidad por una noche vuestros asuntos personales, El placer y el dolor pueden aguardar a la puerta: Una voz se oye desde este lado de la republica. ¡Atención, señoras y señores! ¡un momento de atención! (El Peregrino, Nicanor Parra) This project is an ambitious attempt to review the tie between Chile and Rapanui according to law. According to Gonschor the people of Easter Island are entitled to obtain political decolonisation according to the United Nations‟ parameters and international treaties of which Chile is signatory.1 This means that the thesis supports the proposition that Easter Island is “the” Chilean colony in Oceania, a belief shared by an important, though so far unquantifiable number of the island‟s citizens who have internationally raised the question no fewer than three times, in the recent past.2 1 “Law As A Tool of Oppression And Liberation: Institutional histories and perspectives on political independence in Hawai‟i, Tahiti Nui / French Polynesia and Rapa Nui” by Lorenz Rudolf Gonschor, a thesis submitted to the graduate division of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Pacific Islands Studies, unpublished, personal records, 2008. 2 In 1983, the Council of Elders „[…] sent a well publicised letter to the United Nations and to several world leaders, demanding justice for the Rapanui […] Chileans feared that the Committee wished to promote independence.‟ See “Rapanui and Chile. An example of Land and Colonialism from the Pacific” by Grant McCall, Indigenous Affairs, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen Nº 4, 1994, 37; „In 1998, 1,200 Rapanui signed a petition to the UN decolonization committee and asked for a referendum on independence, with apparently no reaction.‟ See n. 1, 157 quoting “Bilingualism, Social Change and the Politics of Ethnicity on Rapanui (Easter Island), Chile, unpublished dissertation, Yale University, copy in UH Hamilton Library, by Miki Makihara, 1999: 139; In 1998 the Council of Elders 2 remained for several months in the catholic church‟s courtyards displaying placards such as: „Rapa-Nui requires the fulfilment of the treaty made between the government of Chile and King Atamu Tekena on 9 September 1888.‟ See “Scenarios of Tourism Development in Easter Island” by Francesco Di Castri, International Journal of Island Affairs, INSULA, Vol. 8, 1999, 36; Another placard said: „The people of Rapa Nui request the return of their lands seized by the Chilean state.‟ See “Cultural Politics and Globalization on Rapa Nui” by Riet Delsing, Rapa Nui Journal , Vol. 12 (4), Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos, CA, USA, 1998, 102; „[T]he Secretary of the Decolonization Committee (C-24), […] remembers speaking to some people from Easter Island around 2000, 2001 regarding participation in the UN's decolonization seminar and the C-24's substantive session. He explained to them at the time - that the C-24 is only mandated by the UN General Assembly to deal with the Non-Self-Governing Territories on the C-24 list (currently 16), so their participation was not possible. Since then, there have been no further contacts. In other words, for these reasons, no petition from Easter Island was ever put before the Committee.‟ Lone Jessen, personal communication, May, 2009, Political Affairs Officer, Decolonization Unit, Department of Political Affairs, United Nations, NY. 9 Basically, political decolonisation is initiated when a territory is formally declared to be a Non-Self-Governing-Territory [NSGT] before the General Assembly of the United Nations on the initiative of the administering power. In the case of Rapanui it would be Chile which would move that it be included on the UN Committee on Decolonisation 24 list.