The Indigenous World 2026: Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Chile

Rapa Nui is an island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, more than 3,700 kilometres off the coast of continental Chile, with an area of 16,628 hectares. It is inhabited by the Rapa Nui people, descendants of an age-old culture recognized for the creation of large megalithic structures known as Moai and for having developed a unique civilization.

Rapa Nui is currently a territory annexed to the State of Chile, by virtue of a treaty signed by both nations on 09 September 1888 and known as the Agreement of Wills. This document establishes respect for the investiture of the Rapa Nui chiefs and reserves ownership of the land for the Rapa Nui people. However, the Chilean State is systematically failing to comply with this agreement, usurping the ownership of the land and committing major violations of the rights of its original inhabitants.

This article is part of the 40th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Self-determination vs State imposition

2025 will go down in the political memory of the Rapa Nui people as a turning point. Not because of a conquest recognized by the State but because of the collective response to an attempt perceived as an historical regression: the State of Chile’s attempt to impose a Special Statute of Government and Administration on Rapa Nui, designed and implemented from a logic of centralism and without fully respecting the collective rights of the Indigenous people to their territory, governance and self-determination.

This was neither a technical disagreement nor an administrative dispute. What was at dispute was fundamental: who makes decisions about Rapa Nui and which institutions exercise this decision-making power.

Historical and political context

The relationship between the Rapa Nui people and the Chilean State has been marked by a long history of dispossession, colonialism, territorial confinement and external tutelage. Since the 1888 Agreement of Wills, signed on an understanding of mutual respect and the preservation of the people's own authorities, and for most of the 20^th century, when the Rapa Nui population was confined to the Hanga Roa sector while the rest of the island was administered by private companies and, later, by the Navy, the collective experience has been one of an increasingly eroded sovereignty.

The struggle for the recovery of land, for the recognition of their own institutions and for the effective exercise of self-determination has been constant.

Formal start of the consultation process in 2025

The conflict that marked the 2025 political cycle had a precise administrative starting point. By means of Exempt Resolution No. 2,467, dated 25 June 2025, of the Ministry of the Interior, Undersecretary of the Interior, published on Friday, 04 July 2025 in the Official Gazette, the State ordered a consultation process with Indigenous Peoples, instructed the start of administrative proceedings and called for a consultation process on the Special Statute of Government and Administration for the Special Territory of Easter Island.

This act gave rise to an Indigenous consultation process that took place during the second half of 2025, its foundations being established at the central level of the State and its implementation being entrusted to the Provincial Presidential Delegation of Easter Island and to administrative bodies defined by this authority itself.

From its earliest stages, the process was perceived by broad sectors of the Rapa Nui people as an initiative designed without effective prior dialogue with the people's own institutions. The methodologies, stages, deadlines and partners were defined without an initial agreement with the cultural and territorial authorities, generating early distrust as to the legitimacy of the process.

Evolution of the process and questions of legitimacy

Over the next few months, planning and information meetings were held, organized and moderated by officials from the Ministry of the Interior. This process was characterized by extremely low levels of effective participation from the Rapa Nui people, as well as constant complaints regarding flaws in its design, implementation and methodology, particularly with regard to lack of representativeness, good faith and cultural appropriateness. This was compounded by a lack of adequate, complete and culturally relevant information, as well as the hierarchical dependence of the process facilitators on the State body that was promoting the proposed Statute, which only embedded the perception of a lack of impartiality.

In this context, the Ma'u Henua Indigenous community, in its capacity as autonomous administrator of the Rapa Nui National Park, issued a high-impact public statement at the end of August 2025 expressing its deep concern at a proposal that did not reflect the true will of the Rapa Nui people nor adequately protect the territorial, cultural and governance rights associated with their ancestral territory. This statement had a catalytic effect and was followed by public demonstrations and critical positions from other Rapa Nui authorities and organizations, including Koro Nui o te Vaikava (Council of the Sea), the NGO Vahine Matato'a and the Tehigaro Indigenous community.

Finally, these latter two organizations and authorities resorted to the justice system to resolve the conflict, filing an appeal for protection before the national courts and denouncing the illegality and arbitrariness of the Indigenous consultation process. The action was registered under Case No. 7.861-2025 before the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, thus consolidating a scenario of formal legal challenge to a process perceived as lacking in legitimacy.

The response of the Rapa Nui people

Faced with this situation, the Rapa Nui people responded with organized and well-founded actions. During September and October, as part of a series of peaceful marches and demonstrations, a Request for Invalidation and Definitive Termination of the Indigenous Consultation Process was filed, denouncing serious flaws in legality, representativeness, impartiality and good faith.

Subsequently, on 17 November 2025, during the internal deliberation stage of the process, an assembly of the Rapa Nui people adopted a collective and unanimous decision: to terminate the consultation process, formally recording their rejection and backing up this decision with more than 1,000 signatures.

Despite this, the State decided to continue with the process, maintaining subsequent invitations and activities. This was interpreted as a direct denial of the Rapa Nui’s right to self-determination and to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

The vote on 01 February 2026: an unequivocal statement

The cycle that had begun in 2025 came to a political head on 01 February 2026 when a vote was held in the territory of Rapa Nui to decide on the Special Statute proposal tabled by the Government, which had been drafted in conjunction with the Commission for the Development of Easter Island (CODEIPA).

The day saw historic participation on the part of the Rapa Nui people. The result was categorical: an overwhelming majority voted Ina (No), with approximately 87% rejecting the proposal that was put to the vote.

This result was an unmistakable political signal. The Rapa Nui people who participated in this process did not give their consent to the proposed Special Statute under the terms in which it was presented, as it thus failed to meet the minimum standard for FPIC required by International Human Rights Law for administrative or legislative measures that directly affect Indigenous Peoples.

Hōnui's statement

Once the results had been made known, the Hōnui ancestral authority, as the assembly of family clans of the Rapa Nui people, issued a public statement reaffirming the political significance of the result.

In that statement, Hōnui pointed out that the majority rejection did not constitute an abandonment of the historic demands of the people nor a rejection of autonomy or self-government. On the contrary, it expressed a political objection to the way in which the State had conducted the process, the insufficient guarantees, the lack of broad consensus and the absence of a truly decolonizing approach when building an institutional framework for Rapa Nui.

The statement reaffirmed that the right to self-determination implies that the Rapa Nui people freely define their political status and development model, without impositions or institutional designs that are alien to their collective will. They also recalled that the relationship between Rapa Nui and the State of Chile had its origin in the Treaty of 1888, a political agreement between two nations the spirit of which demands a relationship based on respect, good faith and recognition of collective rights to territory, lands and cultural heritage.

Finally, Hōnui called on the Rapa Nui people to remain united, informed and in a constant state of political alert, reaffirming that self-determination cannot be delegated or replaced by administrative mechanisms but must be exercised collectively from within the territory and with full historical awareness.

Evaluation and outlook

2025 cannot be understood solely as an administrative or legal conflict. It was a political reaffirmation of the Rapa Nui people in the face of attempts to redefine their governance without their consent.

The lesson is clear: it is not possible to build a legitimate Special Statute for Rapa Nui without the express consent of the people who inhabit and give meaning to that territory. Any future process must start from the Rapa Nui people's own institutions, with a genuinely decolonizing approach and in accordance with international human rights standards.

Rather than closing down a discussion, the outcome of this cycle has opened up a pending task: that of rebuilding the political relationship between the State of Chile and the Rapa Nui people on the basis of respect, balanced dialogue and effective recognition of the right to decide their own destiny.

Benjamin Ilabaca Hey is a lawyer and member of the Rapa Nui people. He is also an expert in Indigenous Peoples' Human Rights and Sustainable Development, with a track record as a national and international consultant.

This article is part of the 40th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Tags: Global governance