Bishop Museum Announces Return of Latte Stones and Hornbostel Collection

# Bishop Museum Announces Return of Latte Stones and Hornbostel Collection

Beginning in August 2025, Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History, will initiate a phased return of more than 10,000 pieces from the Museum's permanent collection to the Mariana Islands, including the latte stones currently on display in front of Hawaiian Hall.

Bishop Museum's Board of Directors have unanimously voted to deaccession pieces in the Cultural Resources collection originally acquired by Hans Hornbostel in the early 20th century. This landmark decision comes after three years of collaboration with government officials and colleagues at peer institutions including the Guam Museum, the Guam Cultural Repository, Guam State Historic Preservation Office, the Northern Mariana Islands State Historic Preservation Office, and the Northern Mariana Islands Museum of History and Culture.

The decision to rematriate these pieces is in response to requests from the Guam Government dating back to the 1930s, calling for the reunification of the items with their home countries, and from Bishop Museum's present-day consideration of ethical museum practices.

About the Hornbostel Collection and Latte Stones

(Adapted from Håga', Indigenous Reconnection Through Indigenous Museum Practice, Sarah Kuaiwa with Hila'an San Nicolas, 2024.)

The Hornbostel Collection consists of more than 10,000 objects collected from the Mariana Islands between 1920-1927 by Lieutenant Hans George Hornbostel (1884-1957) of the United States Marine Corps. While Hornbostel's field notebooks indicate that excavation was his primary method of research, it was widely known within the CHamoru community that he was also unethically collecting from family-held lands.

Latte sites, or guma' latte, are the Indigenous house structure of people in the Mariana archipelago. The people of the Marianas built rectangular structures atop a series of erected stone pillars (hålege or haligi) and capitals (tasa). Organizing the latte in evenly spaced rows allowed for the construction of rectangular, thatched structures that housed large families. To ensure good fortune, manamiko' (elders) of those living in these dwellings were buried beneath the structure and in proximity to the guma' latte. Guma' latte are thus not only considered places of community and family gathering, but also strong symbols of genealogy and CHamoru identity.

More than a return of objects

Rematriation is a movement focused on restoring Indigenous peoples' relationships with their ancestral lands and cultures. Whereas repatriation refers to the physical return of human remains and ancestral, often-associated burial belongings, rematriation speaks to a deeper restoration and of cultural continuity.

"The return of these pieces to the Mariana Islands fortifies a multi-year partnership between Bishop Museum, Guåhan, and the Northern Mariana Islands to collaborate through Bishop Museum's Te Rangi Hīroa Curators and Caretakers Fellowship program and other initiatives," said Healoha Johnston, Bishop Museum director of Cultural Resources, and curator for Hawaiʻi and Pacific Arts and Culture.

"Rematriation can be the beginning, not the end, of connecting source communities with their art and human record," added Johnston. "Bishop Museum will continue to collaborate with members of the CHamoru and Chamorro diaspora who live in Hawaiʻi to develop collections based on consent, and will work with partners in Guåhan and the Northern Mariana Islands to bring historical pieces to Hawaiʻi on loan from consenting organizations, as a pathway for connection across generations and geographies."

A decades-long effort coalesces in 2022

In 2022, people from Guåhan and the Northern Mariana Islands reached out to Bishop Museum to request information about, and the return of, material acquired by Hans Hornbostel. Through the Museum's colleagues who submitted these inquires, and through in-depth research, the Museum's current Cultural Resources team learned that the Museum had previously returned small selections from the collection over the course of the 20th century, culminating in the repatriation of all known human remains housed at Bishop Museum back to the Mariana Islands in 2000.

The Museum further learned that every 25 or so years, or every generation since Hornbostel acquired these pieces, people in Guåhan and later the Northern Mariana Islands requested the return of this collection. A close and productive working relationship emerged between Bishop Museum and a group of museums and government officials in the Marianas, from the most recent round of discussions.

"We began to articulate a shared ethical orientation to reckon with historical injustices and unify people with their artistic and cultural heritage," shared Johnston. "This ultimately will culminate in the return of this collection and a long-term reciprocal partnership."

The decision for rematriation was made after three years of inter-institutional collaboration, and was supported through funding provided by the Mellon Foundation. Key efforts included listening sessions; collection care days with the community; working group sessions; collections accesses; presentations by Museum curator Sarah Kuaiwa about the collection and institutional history; and, a series of consultations conducted during the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture held at Bishop Museum in 2024.

"We are grateful for the initiative and incredible partnership with the Bishop Museum staff and leadership," said Josh Tenorio, Lieutenant Governor of Guam. "Their integrity and willing cooperation are truly admirable, and we are proud of this effort rooted in Indigenous solidarity. Through these important Pacific connections, we will close a painful chapter of our history, but we have also started a new chapter of friendship and collaboration between our two institutions."

"The effort to rematriate these CHamoru artifacts is not just about returning items to their rightful place, it is symbolic of the shared understanding between two Indigenous communities who understand the importance of history, identity, and our connection to our past," said Melvin Won Pat-Borja, Mås Ge'hilo' (President), Guam Department of CHamoru Affairs. "We are proud to have had the opportunity to work with Bishop Museum to right this historical injustice and we look forward to a future of partnership and collaboration."

"The return of this collection is long-awaited, and builds on generations of Chamoru research, stories, and the collective memory of the Hornbostels in Guåhan and the Mariånas," said Nicole DeLisle Dueñas, Guam Cultural Repository. "It marks a critical and much-needed paradigm shift in museums globally, including decolonizing museum practices and honoring Indigenous connections to place. We've been very fortunate to work with the team at Bishop Museum, including Kanaka Maoli staff, who are dedicated to true rematriation, Indigenous participation, and collaboration — their support helped make this return possible!"

The work continues

Bishop Museum is partnering with governments, museums, and universities in the Pacific and around the world through its Te Rangi Hīroa Curators and Caretakers Fellowship program to integrate Indigenous frameworks and museum best practices, with the goals of both learning from and providing training for art, archaeology, and heritage curators and collections stewards.

"Bishop Museum participates in an ecosystem of museums and nonprofits where aspirations often outmatch institutional and financial capacity," said Johnston. "In these conditions, being a steward of the public trust means being collaborative, it means taking time to listen, and making space for truth-telling to really create an environment where research and acquisitions restore connections between people and land, and with each other."

For more information on Bishop Museum's commitment to ethical returns, please visit BishopMuseum.org/NAGPRA.

Ceremony in Honor of the Return of the Latte Stones

• Saturday, Aug. 9, 202510-11 a.m.Bishop Museum Gallery LawnsBishop Museum, in partnership with the Government of Guam and the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Guam Museum, the Guam Cultural Repository, and the NMI Museum invites the Chamorro community and friends to participate in a special ceremony honoring the return of the latte stones. Prayer and offerings made of natural materials will be gifted.The public is welcome to gather with us and to honor the latte stones as we celebrate their journey back home. Please enter and check-in through the Museum's main entrance.Note: Access to this ceremony is free admission. This does not include access to the museum galleries.Media are welcome to attend the ceremony; Bishop Museum curators Healoha Johnston and Sarah Kuaiwa will be available for interviews, along with partners from Guåhan and the Northern Mariana Islands including Lt. Governor Tenorio, Henry Hofschneider, Nicole DeLisle Dueñas, Leonard "Leni" Leon, Martha Satur Yftheg, and Shizelle Pua. Please RSVP with Lance Aquino via the contact information at the start of this release.

Select photos of the latte stones and the Museum's collaboration with partner communities can be accessed here.