Pain and grief, joy and hope — those warring sentiments were expressed by CHamorus and others who came to celebrate the return of five latte pieces taken more than a century ago from the Marianas and sitting for the last few days on the Great Lawn of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu on Saturday. 

The latte will be crated sometime between Aug. 18-22, according to Melvin Won Pat-Borja, president of the Guam Department of CHamoru Affairs. The museum will then store the huge artifacts until the U.S. Navy ships the latte under its OPPORTUNE LIFT program, which uses volunteer Navy vessels to transport approved shipments. 

Representatives from Guam and the Northern Marianas flew to Honolulu to join the morning ceremony, including Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio. While he and other speakers praised the Bishop Museum for its recent decision to return the latte and more than 10,000 pieces in the Hornbostel Collection, they also made mention of the “infamous removal” of the artifacts in the 1920s.

“As we reflect on this momentous occasion, we must discover and discuss and acknowledge the actions taken which resulted in … the infamous removal of these artifacts and the set of latte  before us by Hans Hornbostel were emblematic of the policies and violations leveled against the indigenous CHamorus at a very different time, which disregarded the sanctity and sacredness of the artifacts’ original placement by our ancestors.”

Guam’s government has been requesting the return of the artifacts since the 1930s — just a decade after they were first taken — according to the museum. Now, almost 100 years later, the request has been answered in the affirmative. 

 “Today marks the culmination of a long history of struggle by many CHamorus who have worked for the pursuit of the return of these precious cultural remains back to the home islands,” said Faye Untalan, a CHamoru language professor and researcher at UH at Manoa.  

The overriding tone of the speeches, however, was of reconciliation with the past and gratitude for the collaborative partnership among the indigenous CHamorus of the Marianas and the kanaka maoli of Hawaii.   

“The rematriation of artifacts, spearheaded by the Bishop Museum and Government of Guam is firmly rooted in indigenous solidarity and recognition of the shared struggles caused by colonization,” Josh said. “I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the Bishop Museum for invoking the principles of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, recognizing and affirming the dignity and rights of Pacific peoples. The partnership embodies the kinship of the Pacific, and I look forward to seeing how it will flourish.”

In the same vein, he praised the U.S. Navy for agreeing to bring the latte back to the Marianas while also reminding the audience of the role it played in the removal of the 10,000 artifacts in the collection. “It is my hope, and actually it is my confidence, ... that the Navy's assistance in this process marks a new beginning, one of genuine accountability, reconciliation and sustained action. Let us not see this as a closure, but as the beginning of an ongoing collaboration and of healing.”

Bishop Museum representatives, in turn, were just as appreciative of the partnership and optimistic for the future. 

“I’m honestly just so grateful to everybody we’ve been working with for the past three years to make an event like this happen, especially because our community partners on Guam and here in the diaspora really rally around the latte and every time we call for them to participate with us, they come and they show their support,” said Sarah Tamashiro Kuaiwa, the museum’s curator for Hawaii and Pacific Cultural Resources. “This was our opportunity to show our aloha to them, but also to mark (the first step) in a long process.” 

“I feel the same, just incredible gratitude to our colleagues (Guam curator) Michael Bevacqua, (Guam Cultural Repository Collections Lab Manager) Nicole Delisle and (NMI Museum of History & Culture Executive Director) Leni Leon who really helped us walk this path and showed us what collaboration could really look like when it comes to a very contentious chapter,” said Healoha Johnston, Bishop Museum’s director of cultural resources. “I feel actually very hopeful and confident this partnership is going to be sustainable because of the relationships were forged in the process.” 

Joining the institutional and governmental representatives in the crowd of about 100, CHamorus who now live in Honolulu or elsewhere showed up to bid farewell to the latte. Many brought offerings of natural materials, which included lei, objects woven from coconut leaves, fruit and more.  

“(I’m) feeling a lot of feelings, a lot of pain and grief, but also a lot of joy and hope that they are being brought back home and there are a lot of community members from here in Hawaii, from the Mariana Islands that have been stewarding and taking care of our ancestors,” said Gillian Duenas, who grew up in Washington state and is now studying for her master’s in Pacific Island studies at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

“It’s been really beautiful to see CHamorus and kanaka maoli working together to try to repair what has been done wrong in the past. That’s what has been really inspiring for me to see, is that collaboration across the Pacific.”