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âWe want the museum to understand that the moai are our family, not just rocks. For us [the statue] is a brother; but for them it is a souvenir or an attraction,â said Anakena Manutomatoma, who serves on the islandâs development commission. âOnce eyes are added to the statues, an energy is breathed into the moai and they become the living embodiment of ancestors whose role is to protect us.â
isnt the point of a museum to preserve history though? id prefer something be in a controlled environment than outside in the elements.
The moai have been standing JUST fine in the open in the island for literal centuries. Believe it or not, the Rapa Nui are NOT stupid; they know their island, how to live in it, and what materials and treatment to those materials do or do not last in the island theyâve called their home for ages. The moai are MADE to be âoutside in the elementsâ.
And preserved for whom? Iâm sure my ancestors wouldnât feel itâs preservation to have a LIVING piece of their culture stolen by colonizers and kept away from them all this fucking long when I assure you, no one asked for their permission to take it in the first place.
Thatâs not fucking âpreservingâ, thatâs just fucking stealing, and a loss of culture for the Rapa Nui.
Well then my God, every museum in the world should give all their artifacts back to the entitled people who want them.
Damn right they should give back all their STOLEN artifacts. How the fuck are you this fucking stupid that youâd call the people who MADE and are the rightful owners of those artifacts âentitledâ WHEN THE ARTIFACTS BELONG TO THEM AND MUSEUMS
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Imagine this. Your grandmother has a ring she made. Thereâs a very particular way of making the ring that she employed, one thatâs been handed down through your family line for centuries. Itâs a beautiful ring. One day, when sheâs not home, someone comes into your house, steals the ring, and puts it in a museum. When you ask for it back, they go âbut itâs beautiful! And the technique is one weâve never seen! Surely it belongs somewhere everyone can see it!â And yeah, the ring is beautiful, but itâs important to you because she used to play with it when she would tell you stories. Maybe, if the museum had asked for the ring, allowed you to write the description so it honored your grandmother, given you a choice in the matter, you might have considered donating it. Hell, if they had commissioned a piece from you using the same technique you probably would have been ecstatic to show your familyâs art to the world. But they didnât. They stole it. And to add insult to injury, they wonât even admit that they did so. This is what has happened with the Easter Island heads. And this is why they should give them back.
We shouldnât need a fucking analogy to explain why you donât steal shit from people, but this is a pretty good one.
Donât forget the part where you demand they return the ring that was stolen from your house and they call you âentitledâ for trying to exercise your rightful claim to your culture and property.
