Beginning in August 2025, Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai‘i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, will initiate a phased return of more than 10,000 pieces from the Museum’s permanent collection to the Mariana Islands, including the latte stones currently on display in front of Hawaiian Hall.
Bishop Museum’s Board of Directors have unanimously voted to deaccession pieces in the Cultural Resources collection originally acquired by Hans Hornbostel in the early 20th century. This landmark decision comes after three years of collaboration with government officials and colleagues at peer institutions including the Guam Museum, the Guam Cultural Repository, Guam State Historic Preservation Office, the Northern Mariana Islands State Historic Preservation Office and the Northern Mariana Islands Museum of History and Culture.
The decision to rematriate these pieces is in response to requests from the Guam Government dating back to the 1930s, calling for the reunification of the items with their home countries, and from Bishop Museum’s present-day consideration of ethical museum practices.
Rematriation is a movement focused on restoring Indigenous peoples’ relationships with their ancestral lands and cultures. Whereas repatriation refers to the physical return of human remains and ancestral, often-associated burial belongings, rematriation speaks to a deeper restoration and of cultural continuity…