Rapa nui: Back from the brink

Isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, midway between the coasts of Chile and Tahiti, the young people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) use Spanish to connect to the world. They have almost lost the use of their mother tongue, Rapa Nui, which is of Polynesian origin. Only ten per cent of youth master the language today, compared to seventy-six per cent forty years ago. María Virginia Haoa of the Rapa Nui Language Academy sounds the alarm.