In all this account of the departure of King Hotu Matua (Matua means father) from Hiva Island and the later arrival of the Maoris in Rapa Nui, there is no explanation for the gigantic moai, which mean nothing to the present inhabitants, either as sacred idols or as statues of respected historical or legendary characters, apart from the fact that it is said that before these Maoris arrived, people with wide ears inhabited the island, that the short-eared people of the araki Tuu-ko-Iho, the husband of Ava Rei Pua, killed trying to explain his ignorance about the origin of the moai, and the plausible version of the disappearance of the sculptors of those anthropomorphic monoliths, of which all they know is that many are abandoned on the ridges of the summits, half-carving, without any rapanuino having was able to give an account of when or how this interruption occurred in his carving and subsequent erection, nor the reason for his presence on the slopes of the island.
As for the mythology of Easter Island, the first mention is made of the bird-god Makumaku, of which there is a multitude of ancient carvings, certainly from the same time as that of the Maoi builders, in the rocks of the volcanic mountains of the island:there is talk of the existence the Aku-aku, the invisible spirits who give the key to the souls of the population of Maori origin; one thinks of other secondary gods, such as Hava, Hiro, Raraia Hoa and Tive, but there is no solid doctrine that unites these gods and spirits in a coherent way, nor even that can establish a nexus between the sculptures and the current people, given that that the names of the myth that remained after Christianization are only residual animist personifications that give meaning to certain visible manifestations of the most feared forces of nature.
Rapa-Nui Civilization