Easter Islanders Want Giant Statue Back from British Museum

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November 19, 2018

People living on Easter Island want the United Kingdom to return one of the island's famous "giant head" statues that has been in the British Museum for nearly 150 years.

Easter Island statue

The statue is known as Hoa Hakananai'a, which translates from the island's native peoples' language into English as "lost or stolen friend." The 8-foot-tall statue dates to about 1200.

The crew of a Royal Navy ship, the HMS Topaze, visited the island in 1868, dug up the statue–along with a smaller one known as Hava–and carted them back to England, presenting them to the monarch, then Queen Victoria, as a gift. The queen regifted the statues to the British Museum.

Benedicto Tuki, a sculptor from the island, which the local people say is Rapa Nui, has made an offer of an exact replica to replace the one currently in the British Museum. A delegation from the island is on the way to London to formally request the exchange, which was first proposed by Rapa Nui Mayor Pedro Edmunds in August 2018, in the form of a letter to the British Museum. Officials from the museum have, for the first time, agreed to meet with the Rapa Nui delegation, which has the backing of the Chilean government.

The island got its English-language name from Holland's Captain Jacob Roggeveen, who landed there on Easter Sunday in 1722. Roggeveen found a strange culture and even stranger huge structures called Moai, face-like giant rocks that dotted the coastlines, as if guarding the island's people from intruders. The population has severely declined since then, totalling less than 200 in the most recent count, done a few years ago. Several hundred of the large statues still dot the island.

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Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2018
David White

Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2019
David White