In the December 2024 issue of the American Historical Review, a special issue on “Histories of Resilience,” member Gregory Cushman co-authored a research article “Ecologies of Resilience: The Many Colonizations of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), c. 1200-Present” with Trisha Jackson and Johannes J. Feddema.
They see the island’s history as a “parable of survival, adaptation, and resilience.” To quote the issue introduction:
Engaging with Rapanui perspectives and historical methodologies, alongside paleoenvironmental evidence and traditional archival documents, the authors uncover the Indigenous longue durée of Rapanui resilience, from the original settling of the island around the thirteenth century CE through subsequent colonial intrusions. The authors showcase the complexity of Indigenous resilience through the ways Rapanui peoples encoded historical and ecological knowledge in place names, navigational direction tied to the stars, oral accounts, the recently reconstructed Native Chronicle of Years, and rongorongo script. Knowledge keepers developed and maintained this Rapanui archive over generations in an expression of resilience that counters colonial erasure.
The article is available here. Congratulations Greg!