Small Island Big Song: Interview with Yoyo from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Small Island Big Song is an environmental cultural project created by Australian music producer Tim Cole and his wife Bao Bao, with over a hundred Aboriginal musicians from 16 island nations between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, they hope to shape a musical stance of a slice of the world directly plagued by environmental issues. L'album it was recorded in Natura, on the artists' islands of origin. It is a proposal of fair trade music.

Yoyo Tuki is one of the first musicians recruited by Tim Cole and Bao Bao for the project, he lives in the most remote island in the world, his original name is Rapa Nui and is known worldwide as Easter Island. Born and raised on this island, Yoyo is a professional songwriter, composer, guitarist and ukelele player who combines flavors of traditional Rapa Nui music with Reggae, Afro, Folk, Latin, New Age and more. He has decided to embark on this musical adventure to make the world aware of the dangers of global warming and climate change, who threatens his native island at the forefront.

Thanks to Culture and Music, the group of musicians hopes to raise public awareness of serious environmental problems that are affecting their lives and those of their families. Some of the Small Island Big Song musicians travel the world with Tim Cole and Bao Bao, determined to show everyone what is happening and what they are experiencing firsthand in the island nations.

This is the interview given by Easter Island musician Yoyo Tuki for FIRST Art.

What do you want to tell the world through the Small Island Big Song project?

“All of us band members come from small islands scattered in the ocean, our ancestors never imagined that the day would come when climate change would threaten our lands. Today, however, we need a larger space for our people, frankly we don't know where we will be able to survive in the next few years.

Currently we collect the rubbish that accumulates on our coasts, the waste from Europe reaches us across the Pacific. The Ocean is giving us a sign, my people and I are the people of the ocean, and we represent these remote areas. Numerous island communities collect this rubbish and make videos to sensitize people from all over the world, showing what is happening in their everyday life.

My island Rapa Nui (Easter Island in Italian) is very isolated, it is 4000 km away from the nearest country, plastic accumulates on its coasts, waste that comes from far away, especially from Europe and Asia. The people who live in these small islands similar to mine are suffering a lot from Climate Change and the waste from Modern Societies.”

Are you angry because of the misfortune that is befalling your island?

“It is a culture war that we fight, that we must fight, if we get angry and frustrated it is simply because the first nations of the world are not listening to us: once we were all Indigenous people who only wanted to live in harmony with Nature.

I am taking an intercultural position, it is true that we live in a modern world but it is also true that we still live next to the Ancient Natural World, somehow I hope that the message of our ancestors is touching you and I hope you can see the world from our point of view as well, the People of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. We as artists play a crucial role in making everyone aware of the danger of climate change.”

What is the benefit of using music in getting your message across?

“There were Ancient Times when people didn't own writing instruments, then Australia's indigenous peoples had forged an oral database of information to be passed on to their offspring through songs and lullabies that meant everything to them.

The history of humanity tells us that music has always been there, the first peoples used it to communicate important social schemes with each other, even the modern world still listens to the radio and things told through music. Music is a primary means of connection for human beings, it is closely connected to life. Through music many stories are told: since the dawn of time it has been a powerful means of expressing ourselves and that's why we chose her to tell this story as well."