Norway Kon-Tiki Museum Returns Priceless Artifacts to Easter Island’s Rapa Nui Community”
Norway Kon-Tiki Museum Returns Priceless Artifacts: Artifacts and human remains taken over seven decades ago from Rapa Nui, widely known as Easter Island, have been returned to Chile’s remote Pacific island by Norway’s Kon-Tiki Museum. This cultural restitution includes human remains, or Ivi Tepuna, and sculpted stones originally brought to Norway by legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl in the late 1940s.
Heyerdahl, famous for his 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, sailed from Peru to Polynesia in a daring 101-day journey, seeking to prove his theory that the South Sea Islands may have been settled by South American seafarers. His expedition not only garnered international attention but also resulted in the transfer of 5,600 objects from Rapa Nui to Norway.
This recent return marks the third and largest repatriation of Rapa Nui artifacts from the Kon-Tiki Museum, following previous returns in 1986 and 2006. Liv Heyerdahl, granddaughter of Thor Heyerdahl and head of the museum, expressed pride in fulfilling her grandfather’s promise that the items would one day be restored to their original home. “Of course these remains should be returned, and it feels right because they belong to the Rapa Nui,” she told the Norwegian news agency NTB.
The ceremonial handover took place after a delegation of nine individuals from Rapa Nui traveled to Oslo. In a heartfelt ritual, four members of the group stayed overnight at the museum with the remains, conducting a ceremony to “awaken” the spirits of their ancestors. Laura Tarita Rapu Alarcón, a member of the delegation, described the importance of honoring these spirits in their original language and preparing food as part of the ritual. “It is important that those who own the culture are involved in the process,” added Heyerdahl.
While an agreement to return these cultural treasures was signed between Norway and Chile in 2019, the pandemic delayed the repatriation process until now. The return of these items comes as a significant moment for Rapa Nui’s people, who have long sought to reclaim pieces of their heritage.
Rapa Nui is celebrated globally for its unique culture and the iconic moai statues, monolithic figures crafted by the island’s early inhabitants. The island spans approximately 164 square kilometers and is home to around 7,700 people, half of whom are of Rapa Nui ancestry. Officially named Rapa Nui-Easter Island in 2019, the island lies 3,700 kilometers from South America, marking it as one of the world’s most isolated inhabited regions.
The repatriation of these artifacts highlights ongoing efforts to return cultural and ancestral items to their rightful communities, recognizing the historical and spiritual value they hold for the descendants of Rapa Nui’s original culture.
