The British Museum's social networks are overwhelmed with messages written in Spanish.
Chilean Internet users have launched a campaign on Instagram to demand the return of a moai statue, one of the famous stone monuments of Easter Island, from the British museum, explains the Guardian.
Located in London, the museum has two.
They were collected from Rapa Nui by the English navigator Richard Powell in 1868.
Chilean demands - Easter Island is Chilean territory - to repatriate the statues are not new.
However, this wave of posts on social networks is surprising in its scale: it forced the museum to close the comments section under certain Instagram publications.
According to the Guardian, the movement was launched by influencer Mike Milfort, from Santiago, followed by a million followers.
His call to return the monoliths even reached the screen of Gabriel Boric, the president of the South American country, who voiced his support for the cause on the radio.
Hoa Hakananai’a
Pedro Edmunds Paoa, mayor of Easter Island, nevertheless criticized Gabriel Boric, arguing that he “should not politicize something that is so holistically, spiritually and culturally important to us”.
In 2018, Rapa Nui requested in writing the return of the two statues.
In response, visits between representatives of the museum and the island were held.
The British Museum has also assured that it maintains “good relations” with its collaborators in this territory located in the Pacific Ocean.
This did not prevent the council of elders of Rapa Nui from writing the same request to King Charles last year.
But there was no exchange, the cultural authority of the island did not receive a royal response.
“We do not exclude that Hoa Hakananai'a could stay in London and become our great ambassador,” said Edmunds Paoa.
But we must firmly establish that its rightful owner is the culture of Rapa Nui.
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It must be said that the Hoa Hakananai'a, one of the two moai exhibited in London, is of significant importance for Rapa Nui.
His name translates as: “the stolen friend”.