IU Repatriates Human Remains to Easter Island
In the quarry at Rano Raraku, ancient matamu’a carved the stone monuments known as moai, which represent ancestors who have passed away. The Rapa Nui people have increased efforts in recent years to bring their ancestors home through international repatriation. Photo by Josefina Nahoe
Indiana University has completed its first international repatriation of human remains to the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island. IU’s Jayne-Leigh Thomas visited the island in December as an invited guest of Rapa Nui representatives and is working with them on several research projects focused on the ethics of repatriation.
“To know that I played a small part in returning these Rapa Nui ancestors to Easter Island is overwhelming and so personally rewarding,” said Thomas, executive director of IU’s Office of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. “To be so warmly welcomed onto the island, to build relationships with Rapa Nui representatives, and to have the opportunity to see the rich cultural heritage and visit archaeological sites was simply incredible.”
Thomas said the remains were donated to IU in the 1990s by David M. Lodge, a descendent of United States Navy Rear Adm. George Henry Cooke. As a surgeon and medical officer, Cooke was assigned to Ulysses S. Grant’s detail during the ex-president’s circumnavigation of the world from 1877 to 1879. He later served aboard the USS Mohican, which visited Easter Island in 1886 to collect large stone sculptures, known as moai, for the Smithsonian Institute.
Cooke’s Smithsonian report repeatedly mentions Pakomio Mā’ori, a Rapa Nui survivor of the Peruvian slave raids of 1862. That man’s great-great-grandson, Francisco Nahoe, a Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, worked with Thomas on this repatriation.
When the ancestors were returned to Easter Island, a traditional karaŋa ceremony was performed. Zoilo Huki Atamu, Te Mau Hatu; Susana Nahoe, Ma’u Hēnua Board; Friar Francisco Nahoe, The Order of Friars Minor Conventual; and Joel Huki Atamu, Mahiŋo Rapa Nui, presided over the ceremony. Photo by Eduardo Lema Nahoe
The Rapa Nui people have been very active in repatriation in recent years, working with individuals and institutions in New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Canada, the United States and Chile to locate their ancestors’ remains and bring them home to Easter Island. Nahoe is the North American delegate of Te Mau Hatu, the Easter Island council of elders, for recovery and repatriation.
“Everyone knows the unique legacy of material culture that we inherited from our ancestors, whom we call tupuna,” Nahoe said. “The whole island is an outdoor museum of monumental statuary constructed on a scale unmatched anywhere. The Polynesians who carved the moai were themselves a tiny and completely isolated population. It is the crania of these neolithic sculptors that Euro-American collectors carried away.
“We, their modern descendants, believe it is our duty to find and recover their remains. Moreover, the United Nations and the Organization of American States have emphatically asserted the right of Indigenous peoples to repatriate their ancestral remains.”
Nahoe attended IU’s Intensive NAGPRA Summer Training and Education Program in 2024 with his cousin, Rapa Nui archaeologist Susana Nahoe. The INSTEP program, which Thomas directs, offers best practices regarding the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural objects under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Because few programs exist to support repatriation efforts internationally, and NAGPRA offers a roadmap for repatriation that can be replicated worldwide, there has been increased interest from people around the world to attend this training program.
“There’s no question that 35 years of compliance with this act have generated an ethos of repatriation in the United States,” Francisco Nahoe said. “IU, however, is now leading the way by working on these issues with Indigenous communities beyond NAGPRA.
“Museums and universities have understood that it is not merely obligatory to return ancestral remains, it is also right and just. And if this is true within the United States, it must also be the case outside the boundaries of federal jurisdiction as well.”
The documentation from when the remains were donated to IU included an indigenous word that Jayne-Leigh Thomas didn’t know. It turned out to be the name of a beach on Easter Island where the remains had been taken from. Thomas called it a “full circle moment” to be given a private tour of this location. Photo by Jayne-Leigh Thomas
During her visit to Easter Island, Thomas met with government officials and community members to discuss future collaborations, including international repatriation education, an osteological training program and an artist-in-residence program that could bring the modern Rapa Nui sculptors to IU Bloomington.
Beyond her work with the Rapa Nui, Thomas will continue building on IU’s leadership in NAGPRA and the success of the INSTEP program to provide guidance on international repatriation. She and Nahoe are now collaborating on a book project to support these efforts globally.
Thomas also hopes to see a repatriation certificate added to select IU master’s degree programs, offering students an opportunity to learn about NAGPRA, consultation practices and the importance of repatriation work. Finally, she plans to embark on larger repatriation projects with IU law faculty and the IU Global Gateways.
“IU is fully committed to our NAGPRA work and has several large repatriation projects underway with numerous federally recognized tribal nations, but we also support the return of all Indigenous human remains, not just those from the United States,” IU Vice President for Research Russell J. Mumper said. “We are focused on creating strong partnerships and developing mutually beneficial research projects that highlight repatriation, ethical museum practices and archaeological scholarship with Indigenous communities in the U.S. and abroad.”
https://news.iu.edu/live/news/44054-iu-completes-its-first-international-repatriation