MUSEUM NEWS
ABOVE:
Fishhook or pendant, ma’ai
ma‘ea.
Rapa Nui.
Stone. H: 14.4 cm.
Bishop Museum Ethnology Collection,
inv. B.03540.
Photo: Jesse W. Stephen, © Bishop
Museum.
FAR LEFT:
Female fi gure, moai vi’e.
Rapa Nui.
Wood (possibly Sophora toromiro),
obsidian, bone. H: 55 cm.
Bishop Museum Ethnology Collection,
inv. B.05952.
Photo: Jesse W. Stephen, © Bishop
Museum.
LEFT:
Woman with Rapa Nui
takona (body painting).
Photo by Mokomae Tumatauenga
Araki, one of eight featured artists in
the Ka U‘i: Contemporary Art from
Rapa Nui exhibition.
BELOW:
A woman presents a kai kai
to a group of people on Rapa
Nui, 1934–35.
Photo by Alfred Métraux, Bishop
Museum Archives.
RAPA NUI IN HAWAII
Honolulu—The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum is presenting
a new exhibition that delves into the wonders
of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. Showcasing the Bishop
Museum’s extensive cultural and natural science collections
from the island, Rapa Nui: The Untold Stories
of Easter Island draws upon recent studies conducted
by Bishop Museum researchers and collaborators
to highlight some lesser-known stories about the island.
More than 150 cultural treasures and never-before
seen biological specimens from the museum’s
collection will be on display together for the fi rst time.
In the installation, a number of iconic moai are joined
by the largest collection of artifacts in a single collection
etched with the island’s enigmatic rongo rongo
glyphs. This form of writing, which has eluded decipherment,
was carved into wooden tablets and staffs.
Chiefl y adornments such as ua (ceremonial staffs), rei
miro (breastplates), and intricate feathered headdresses
attest to the skill and artistry of Rapanui artists, and
a highlight of the exhibit will be the museum’s entire
collection of thirty kai kai, or string fi gures, used to
recount oral traditions and tell stories. These were
collected in 1934–35 by ethnographer
Alfred Métraux from Amelia Tepano,
the most knowledgeable cultural
expert in this practice at the time
of his visit to the island. Some of
Métraux’s historical photographs
will also be displayed, allowing a
comparison of images of landscapes
from more than eighty years ago with
more recent photographs that were taken by a Bishop
Museum research team in 2016.
Rapa Nui: The Untold Stories of Easter Island is
accompanied by the complementary Bishop exhibit
Ka U‘i: Contemporary Art from Rapa Nui, featuring
works by eight Rapa Nui–based artists who explore
Rapanui identity, politics, the environment, and ancient
art forms through contemporary media, including
sculpture, photography, and painting. Another
concurrent exhibition, Hare Tao‘a, Hare Tangata, is
at the Museo Antropológico Padre Sebastián Englert
(MAPSE), the local museum on Rapa Nui, where it can
be seen until February 2019. This collaborative exhibit
was developed by the Bishop Museum together with
colleagues at MAPSE and features objects from that
museum’s collection supplemented by a remarkable
stone carved with intricate petroglyphs from the Bishop’s
collection and historical photographic images
from the Bishop’s Archives.