Sonia Haoa Cardinali (born 1953) is a Rapanui archaeologist with the Mata Ki Te Rangi Foundation and coordinator of Easter Island's national monuments.

[1] Haoa has collaborated with many Easter Island specialists, including Gonzalo Figueroa, Katherine and Michael Orliac, Christopher Stevenson, Sergio Rapu, and the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl.

[4] With Christopher Stevenson, Haoa has described agricultural methods including lithic mulching and the use of rock gardens, used by the prehistoric Rapanui people to increase productivity and help moisture retention in the soil.

The findings reveal careful and intensive land management, and challenge the view that the prehistoric Rapanui suffered an environmental collapse before the arrival of the Europeans in 1722.

[5] Haoa's efforts, from recovery of archaeological skeletons to research and analyses, were instrumental in the comprehensive survey of Rapa Nui skeletal material by the anthropologists Vincent Stefan and George Gill.