On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Friar Francisco Nahoe and Mata'u Rapu about how a priest and a filmmaker got involved in repatriation efforts for Rapa Nui (Easter Island). We learn how 19th and 20th Century European sheepherding ventures circulated Polynesian crania from Rapa Nui across the world; how UNESCO recognition can harm indigenous communities; the close relationship between environmental protection, cultural heritage, and indigenous rights; and most of all how the Rapanui people themselves provide an outstanding example of resilience in the face of environmental precarity and Euro-American colonization. Finally, we explore the challenges of living up to the leadership and legacy of both ancient ancestors and living elders in the effort to find a collective, multi-generational Polynesian voice.

Transcripts

• For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/heritagevoices/91

Links

• Heritage Voices on the APN
• Eating up Easter
• Eating up Easter on PBS (Amazon)
• Eating up Easter (PBS)
• British museum public access catalogue
• Moai: Contest Objects from the British Museum Collection
• Article about British Museum Employee who Stole Artifacts from Collection
• Another film made by another Rapanui documentary filmmaker, Leo Pakarati, about Hoa Haka Nana Ia.
• Smithsonian Moai
• Stone Figure Head and Shoulders
• Smithsonian to return ancestral remains to Indigenous Australians
• https://www.instagram.com/smrapu/
• https://linktr.ee/smrapu

Contact

• Jessica
  [email protected]
  @livingheritageA
  @LivingHeritageResearchCouncil

ArchPodNet

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
• APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
• APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
• Tee Public Store

Affiliates

• Motion