The island is your oyster

"Where are you from?
- New York City.
- But where exactly?"

Tai knows his Brooklyn from his Queens. A friend of his lives in NYC, and a cousin too. In fact, most of his friends, cousins and siblings have lived, or are living abroad: when you grow up on the island, you need to broaden your horizons. Some get scholarships from the Chilean government to study on the continent. Others receive grants from US institutions that seek to boost access for Pacific Islanders. Many fall in love and settle overseas. Many others come back.

Tai also knows enough about Hollywood to remain unruffled about blockbuster movies. Kevin Costner produced a film on the island in the 1990s;Tai took part in the shooting but was unimpressed by the result. It was, "you know, the usual Hollywood romance", topped with a dumbed-down dollop of island history and culture, he recalls. And the movie did little to boost local tourism, as some had hoped.

The film was called "Rapa Nui". It’s the name of the island, its people and its language. But to most of the world Tai’s home remains known as Easter Island – one of the most remote inhabited pieces of land on Earth, peopled with widely photographed statues. Tai is not a tourist guide, but he revels in telling us stories about the island’s caves, dances, or stone carvings.

He drives us to a night-club – one of maybe three on the island – and doesn’t lock his car. “You can leave your stuff inside, nobody is going to steal anything.” Firstly, there’s nowhere a robber could go with a stolen car, because it’s a small island. Secondly, even if a burglar nicked that lovely shawl from the back seat, Tai would very soon find out from “someone” and would go punch the thief’s face. Plus “if anybody messes with me, it will backfire on him. My aunt will refuse to sell him milk, or something like that.”

What do you mean, the police? It's not Brooklyn here, it’s a small island.