Makemake (deity)

Makemake (also written as Make-make; pronounced [ˈmakeˈmake] in Rapa Nui[1]) in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island is the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the "Tangata manu" or bird-man sect (this sect succeeded the island's more famous Moai era).

[3] Métraux states that Easter Island's "greatest religious festival, the only one concerning which circumstantial details survive, was that of the bird-man, intimately linked with the cult of the god Makemake.

"The formula which accompanies an offering to Makemake always includes Haua who appears in the myth as the god's companion.

[8] In 2000, BBC produced the documentary "The Lost Gods of Easter Island"[9] exploring a carved wooden idol that David Attenborough purchased in an auction room.

Its whole history is discovered: while there was still wood of the (now locally extinct) Toromiro tree on Easter Island it was carved to represent the god Makemake, traded with the crew of Captain Cook's ship, transported to Tahiti, probably traded by the Tahitians eventually ending up in the auction.