"Kon-Tiki Museum initiates return of excavated artifacts to Easter Island"

In the 1950s, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl conducted extensive excavations on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), unearthing thousands of artifacts he brought back to Norway for study. Now, decades later, many of these items, including human remains, are being returned to the island community off the Chilean coast.

This week, a delegation from Rapa Nui traveled to Oslo to formally receive a selection of the repatriated items, among them a human skull studied during Heyerdahl’s attempts to understand the island's history and its famous statues. Heyerdahl’s fascination with Rapa Nui began after his renowned Kon-Tiki expedition across the Pacific in 1947.

Now led by his granddaughter, Liv Heyerdahl, the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo has begun the repatriation of some 5,600 items brought to Norway. Liv, the museum’s director, acknowledged that the original permission granted for Heyerdahl to take these artifacts included a promise that they would eventually be returned. While some items have been repatriated previously, this return aligns with a broader global movement for museums to return cultural artifacts.

The delegation from Rapa Nui, which included a former island governor, met with Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja, who themselves visited Rapa Nui in 2014. The delegation stayed overnight at the museum in Oslo, engaging in a ceremonial “awakening of the spirits” associated with the human remains, speaking to them in their native language, sharing traditional foods, and sleeping near them before beginning their journey home.

A larger ceremony is planned once the delegation returns to Rapa Nui. Delegation leader Laura Tarita Rapu Alarcón explained that in their culture, the remains of ancestors must return to rest on their homeland. Upon arrival, the remains will be greeted by women welcoming them back, before being reburied to finally “rest for good.”

Liv Heyerdahl emphasized her grandfather’s own commitment to repatriation, as the museum facilitated smaller returns in 1986 and again in 2006. In 2019, during a state visit by King Harald and Queen Sonja, an agreement was signed in Chile to support ongoing cooperation.

As the Kon-Tiki Museum initiates this repatriation, Liv Heyerdahl expressed hope that it would foster deeper cooperation and mutual respect, affirming that “the items belong to Rapa Nui.”