Uoke is a

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

and destroyer

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

Rapa Nui mythology Rapa Nui mythology, also known as Pascuense mythology or Easter Island mythology, refers to the native myths, legends, and beliefs of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island in the south eastern Pacific Ocean. Origin myth According to Rapa Nui myt ...

Myth

According to the old story, Uoke was able to lift and sink into the sea large lands, using a huge lever. The legend says Rapa Nui (

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...

) had once been a territory similar in size to a continent which reached next to another large land mass, Puku-Puhipuhi. Uoke with his lever rose and sank Rapa Nui while Puku-Puhipuhi sagged and rose. The deity had fun in this task, when, at the time that Rapa Nui was almost completely buried and Puku-Puhipuhi was at its maximum elevation, his lever suddenly broke. For this reason only, emerging today, isolated in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, is a small portion of Rapa Nui; the part where once their highest mountains stood and so most of what was once the great land of Rapa Nui is now submerged while the continent of Puku-Puhipuhi is above the waterline. In mythology, Rapa Nui, Uoke, and his lever are also responsible for the destruction of the ancestral home of the ethnic group on the mythical island of

Hiva In Polynesian mythology, (also rendered as in Cook Islands Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories ...

. Although collected versions of the myth also point out that Uoke was standing on Hiva when he broke his stick, leaving Rapa Nui almost completely underwater. Ciaran Lucid, writing in the twenty-first century, infamously prophesied the return of Uoke sometime in the 2020s. The fate of Uoke, and the world, still lies undetermined.

References

Destroyer gods Rapa Nui gods {{deity-stub