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CHILE-CULTURE-HERITAGE
Easter Island natives seek return of unique statue held in London
SANTIAGO, Aug 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Easter Island’s indigenous authorities
have asked Chile’s government to help them recover a unique monumental Moai
statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London.
The 2.4-meter (seven feet) tall Hoa Hakananai’a sculpture was allegedly
pilfered illegally by Richard Powell aboard the “Topaze” and given to Queen
Victoria as a gift.
“It’s a unique piece, the only tangible link that accounts for two
important stages in our ancestral history,” the island’s Rapa Nui authorities
said on Tuesday.
Of the more than 900 giant humanoid sculptures on the island, most were
carved from volcanic ash between the sixth and 17th centuries, but the Hoa
Hakananai’a, which means “the stolen or hidden friend” in the island’s
indigenous Rapa Nui language, is unique as it was made from basalt.
Figures associated with the Tangata Manu (bird man) cult were carved on its
back.
This request “seems appropriate given the new coordination and conservation
functions being carried out on the island with regards the Moai,” Chile’s
National Treasures Minister Felipe Ward told AFP.
Since December, the indigenous Rapa Nui have taken over the conservation,
preservation and management of their archeological heritage.
And part of that involves the attempted recovery of priceless artefacts
they say were illegally taken, including another Moai residing in the Quai
Branly museum in Paris.
The Rapa Nui believe that the “mana” spiritual force that protects the
tribe and is attributed to chiefs and community leaders, resides in Moai and
other sacred objects.
Recovering stolen statues would also be “an important symbol in closing the
sad chapter of violation of our rights by European navigators” that visited
the island in the 19th century, local leaders said.
Easter Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site lying around 3,700-kilometers
(2,000 miles) from the coast of mainland Chile, and whose original
inhabitants are a Polynesian people closely related to those in Tahiti.
The Pacific Ocean island was first recorded by European navigators in 1722
and visited several times, including by Briton James Cook, before it was
annexed by Chile in 1888.
By then, much of its population had been decimated by European diseases
such as smallpox, or carted off into slavery.
Chile recently announced measures to limit the time tourists can stay on
the island and the number of non-Rapa Nui mainlanders allowed to settle
there.
BSS/AFP/MRI/2330 hrs