More than 10,000 artifacts to begin phased return home from Hawai'i

08/11/2025 - More than 10,000 artifacts, including latte stones from Guam and the CNMI, will officially begin to make their way home to the Marianas after a ceremony in honor of the return of the pieces was held at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai'i, over the weekend. Dozens of community members from Hawai'i, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the diaspora attended the event to commemorate the ethical return of more than 10,000 pieces from the Museum’s permanent collection to the Mariana Islands.

CNMI Office of the Governor Chief of Staff Henry Hofschneider delivered remarks on behalf of the CNMI government.  "Today's ceremony signifies the efforts to correct past practices and restore tangible connections between the artifacts and descendants of our ancestors who made them, to whom they rightfully belong," he said.

Saipan Senator Celina Babauta attended the ceremony and told Marianas Press that 2,000 of the 10,000 artifacts are from the CNMI, including Chamorro and Carolinian artifacts.  She said, "It is absolutely important that these artifacts be returned home. They are not just museum pieces; they carry our identity, our history, and our story as a people. Their return allows us to reconnect with the knowledge, traditions, and legacy they represent. Bringing them back ensures that future generations in the CNMI can see, touch, and learn from those who came before us. It is about making sure their story and ours live on."

The return of the artifacts will occur in phases. NMI Museum executive director Leni Leon is expected to arrive on Saipan this week with a few of the artifacts. Local agencies are planning a ceremony to welcome them home. 

In a previous interview, Leon told Marianas Press, “The team of 2 at the NMI Museum spent months cleaning and organizing our Garapan office to ensure we have adequate storage and exhibit spaces, as well as temperature controlled environment in preparation for the rematriation of the Hans Hornbostel Collection.” 

The Bishop Museum said the watershed decision came after three years of talks with government officials in Guam and the CNMI, including the Northern Mariana Islands State Historic Preservation Office. The Bishop Museum said it is more than a return of objects. “Rematriation is a movement focused on restoring Indigenous peoples’ relationships with their ancestral lands and cultures,” they explained. “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.”

Report by Thomas Manglona II.