COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A museum in Oslo is set to return items and human remains taken by Norwegian explorer and anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl in the late 1940s to Easter Island, a remote territory of Chile located in the mid-Pacific. This announcement was made by the Kon-Tiki Museum on Wednesday.
In 1947, Heyerdahl famously sailed from Peru to Polynesia on a log raft named Kon-Tiki to support his theory that seafarers from South America had settled the South Sea Islands. He collected 5,600 artifacts from Easter Island, known in the Rapa Nui language as Rapa Nui. This marks the third instance of items taken by Heyerdahl being returned to their homeland.
The return of the artifacts has been a collaborative effort between the museum, the Chilean government, and the local authorities of Rapa Nui. Liv Heyerdahl, the museum’s director and the explorer’s granddaughter, expressed her pride in the process, stating, “My grandfather would have been proud of what we are about to achieve.” She added to the Norwegian news agency NTB that there had been a promise to return the objects when they were taken.
Among the artefacts being returned are human remains known as Ivi Tepuna and intricately sculpted stones. A delegation of nine representatives from Rapa Nui visited Norway this week to reclaim these items, with four members participating in a ceremonial overnight stay at the Oslo museum to honor the spirits of the remains.
Laura Tarita Rapu Alarcón, a member of the delegation, shared insights on the ceremony, explaining, “First one must awaken the spirits, and then speak to them in our original language. Food is then prepared to eat a meal with them, where the smell of the food goes to the spirits.” Liv Heyerdahl emphasized that the cultural descendants should be involved in this process, stating, “Of course these remains should be returned, and it feels right because they belong to the Rapa Nui.”
An agreement to return the items was signed in Santiago, Chile, in 2019, during a visit by Norway’s King Harald. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed actions planned for 2020, as indicated by the museum. King Harald met with the Rapa Nui delegation earlier this week to discuss the return.
Thor Heyerdahl, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 87, became well-known for his adventurous spirit. His book detailing the Kon-Tiki expedition has become an international bestseller, and the documentary of the journey won an Academy Award for best documentary in 1951.
Easter Island is renowned for its hundreds of moai—massive human figures carved by the indigenous Rapanui people centuries ago. The island spans about 164 square kilometers (63 square miles) and is home to roughly 7,700 inhabitants, half of whom are of Rapa Nui descent. Formed over 750,000 years ago from volcanic eruptions, Easter Island is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands, located 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) from the South American continent. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 and was officially renamed “Rapa Nui-Easter Island” in 2019.
