Hornbostel Collection final report nearly complete
By Jan S.N. Furukawa
CHamoru chants and songs of praise filled the cool morning Honolulu air. Many of the hundreds gathered at the simple, neat Latte Garden united their voices for the ancient tune and contemporary CHamoru Catholic hymn “Malak na Puti’on Tåsi” as a finale.
They laid flowers, coconut oil, coconut leaf baskets and other woven items atop the stones. They paused to kneel, or just touch for a moment, one or two of the pillars or capstones resting on the lawn.
An invitation to the Latte Stone Ceremony read, in part: “The latte stones are considered sacred to the Chamorro people of Laguas yan Gåni (Mariana Islands) who, along with Bishop Museum specialists, have recently cleaned, relocated and re-presented them in a more dignified manner.”
It was a specially arranged ceremony that kicked off Hawaii’s annual Celebrate Micronesia Festival, drawing a large number of Guam and CNMI government officials, CHamoru and Chamolinian elders and scholars, artists, craftsmen and students, residents and visitors alike.
They came together around the Gallery Lawns of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum to bear witness to the existence and presence of the institution’s extensive collection of CHamoru artifacts. Everyone anticipating the ceremony got situated and the beckoning sound of the kulu, or conch shell, signaled its start.
Timed precisely to be conducted during the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture and the daylong Micronesia festival, the ceremony had been planned, organized and hosted by resident scholars of CHamoru lineage Elyssa Santos, Dr. Mary Hattori and Dr. Faye Untalan-Munoz. The Pacific Islands Development Program, the Bulacheros and Hafa Adai clubs of Hawaii lent their support.
Guam Museum curator Michael Bevacqua and the Guam Cultural Repository’s Nicole Delisle Duenas worked behind the scenes with the museum’s ethnology department staff to exhibit the latte, provide access to Guam and CNMI delegates to visit the Hornbostel Collection, and lay the foundation for the eventual return of the latte and other artifacts to the Marianas.
The museum also housed on its wide, welcoming front lawn, a carvers’ village, complete with a tattoo district. This open-air, street-front area served as one of the many venues for FestPac 2024, hosted by Hawaii for the first time in the festival’s 50-year history.
The rhythmic music, dance moves and coconut leaf-weaving techniques of the Federated States of Micronesia provided for a crafty and colorful family day of cultural exchange and celebration.
Also scheduled at the museum until Jan. 12, 2025, is an exhibition titled “Ka’ula Wena: Oceanic Red.” The exhibit includes two CHamoru sinahi created by Julie “Jill” Benavente and Hila’an San Nicolas, commissioned by the museum last year. The distinctive, contemporary designs of the sinahi are meant to replace, if not replicate, their ancestors’ pieces in the Hornbostel Collection.
The museum’s ethnology department team continues to care for its massive collection of Marianas and Caroline Islands artifacts, including latte stones, skeletal remains, tools or implements for carving stone, wood or shell, for creating pottery, and for other utilitarian purposes.
Meanwhile, for nearly two years now, Santos, Bevacqua and Duenas, along with museum and library managers from Saipan have been working with Bishop’s ethnology team and curators Sarah Kuaiwa and Healoha Johnston while the specialists complete their final report on the massive Hornbostel Collection. The museum’s treasure chest of CHamoru and Carolinian artifacts comprises more than 10,000 items.
Earlier in the week, a small number of CHamoru FestPac delegates took the opportunity to see more, and different parts of the collection. Bevacqua had arranged the semi-private tour for carvers, artists and other individuals engaged in similar work in the Marianas. They were granted access for up-close inspection and appreciation.
“At times, seeing and being able to hold an artifact that a CHamoru hand may not have held for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, especially for the group of carvers that were present, to be able to admire the skill of their ancestors brought tears of pride,” Bevacqua posted on his Facebook page.
While the group examined some of the artifacts, Bevacqua explained their origin. It had been only 20 years since America took Guam from the Spanish Crown when governing naval officials decided to collect some physical remnants of the archipelago’s ancient, indigenous society.
Then Hornbostel, a U.S. Marine, under the direction of and with aid from U.S. Navy Capt. Jack Thompson, dug up, arranged, photographed and delivered his booty for transport to Hawaii, Bevacqua said. Two complete latte stones from Ipao and Urunao in Guam were among the first items to be shipped to the Bishop Museum, along with human skeletal remains.
Later shipments included larger latte sets and other antiquities from Rota, Saipan, Tinian and the Caroline Islands, according to Bevacqua. This systematic process of removing the artifacts from their places of origin continued for nearly 30 years.
At the end of the group’s intimate visit with items labeled and laid out on several tables, Bevacqua said in CHamoru, “It is my work, and our work, to take all these artifacts back home.”
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