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“We 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,” said Anakena Manutomatoma, who serves on the island’s development commission. “Once 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.”
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 they’ve called their home for ages. The moai are MADE to be “outside in the elements”.
And preserved for whom? I’m sure my ancestors wouldn’t feel it’s 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.
That’s not fucking “preserving”, that’s just fucking stealing.
@venusmacabre is 100% right on all accounts, but also as an emerging museum professional, it should matter about 0% on whether or not this object is “preserved” by the museum or not because…the museum stole it. This maoi belongs to the Rapa Nui and it’s up to them what they do for and to it. Why? Because Westernized Powers Should Not Get to Decide what to do with other people’s cultural property. You can try and convince me otherwise for hours if you want but it comes from a place of colonization and imperialism and I have no time for it because museums have literally done so much damage with being agents of colonization and it is going to take decades for museums to fix that issue and fix themselves.
I sincerely hope the Rapa Nui have their maoi returned to them, though based on what I know of the British Museum– that’s not going to happen any time soon.
Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding, as preservation is hardly my subject of expertise, but surely if the museum were that concerned, they could help fund the cost of maintenance and preservation in the island.
I mean, there are a great many sculptures in the US that are significant, are by obligation outdoors, and are preserved through constant maintenance rather than climate control, like the Crazy Horse monument. It’s clearly something that can be done, and it’s a bit weird to assume that the western world can do it, but the rapa nui can’t.
If it’s so important, then help pay for its upkeep??
