Sanlågu CHamorus gather around the ancestral human remains of four CHamoru “Matua” and sing “Malak Na Pution Tåsi” during a moving ceremony March 6 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The museum released the three skulls and a mandible believed to be the ancestors of the CHamoru people that were removed from Hagåtña by P. Tubino and delivered to German anthropologist Felix von Luschan around 1878. After the ceremony Guam State Historic Preservation Officer Patrick Lujan carefully packed the remains and hand-carried them to Guam, bringing them home 150 years later.
Copyright photo by Manny Crisostomo
American Museum of Natural History Releases ‘Matua’ Skulls
About 150 years after they left the Marianas, the remains of four CHamoru “Matua” have arrived home following a moving ceremony March 6 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
About two dozen CHamorus, many of them sanlågu artists and scholars residing in the East Coast, gathered respectfully in the museum’s portrait room to send them home with a proper farewell. Read the Full Article Here
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