CHamorus and Guam familia in Honolulu are invited to bid farewell to the latte at the Bishop Museum at a special ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 9. The latte are returning home after a century in Honolulu following the museum’s recent decision to return the entire Hornbostel Collection to the Marianas.  

The ceremony, which will include prayers and offerings, will take place on the Gallery Lawns near the latte. Guam Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio, Department of CHamoru Affairs President Melvin Won Pat-Borja and the Guam Cultural Repository’s Nicole DeLisle Duenas will be attending the ceremony, which will be free to attend. 

Following the ceremony, the museum will be preparing the latte to be crated for their voyage home. “We're working with the CNMI government to include the latte that belong in Rota in the shipment, so that they can receive their latte around the same time that we do,” Melvin said. 

Latte stones from the Marianas sit on the lawn of the Bishop Museum in this 2024 photograph by Manny Crisostomo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from Guam whose visual documentary of CHamoru diaspora is chronicled in his Sanlagu project.

He clarified that the latte were never formally incorporated into the museum’s collection, a process called accession. “Because of that, it presented an opportunity for us to have the latte return to us as phase one. …  that's the reason why the latte are on this fast track, and they are scheduled to return home much sooner than the Hornbostel collection.”

As part of an understanding with the Honolulu museum, he will be bringing back artifacts from the collection as a “loan” for an upcoming exhibit at the Guam Museum, with the expectation that the items will remain in the Marianas along with others that have already returned.    

While museums around the world have undertaken similar projects to return cultural items to their homelands, the Bishop Museum’s collaborative efforts with Guam and the Northern Marianas are “unique and commendable” given that it’s not required to do so under the federal law that applies in these circumstances, he said. 

“The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act has been utilized very effectively by native communities within the United States, particularly First Nations peoples and Native Hawaiians, but because Guam is a territory, NAGPRA doesn't protect us. …

“And so the awesome thing for us is that the Bishop Museum staff has made this commitment to honor the spirit of NAGPRA, even though we know that there is no policy-level obligation that forces Bishop to do so.”

While many in the Marianas welcome the return of these artifacts after a century away,he acknowledged that CHamorus living in Hawaii may miss the opportunity to connect with these cultural icons from home, 

“We don't want to just ignore the value that these items hold to members of our diaspora. That's one of the things that we're working on with the Bishop Museum moving forward is what kind of resources can we bring together to provide extended educational opportunities and enrichment opportunities for our communities that still value these items being in Hawaii. 

“And so there's a number of different possibilities. The advancement of technology is now kind of putting 3D printing on the table … utilizing 3D mapping and 3D printing to be able to create replicas .. and to provide an opportunity for cultural exchange between the two institutions.”