Listen to an audio descrption written especially for blind and
partially sighted visitors
4 minutes, 27 seconds
Hoa Hakananai'a
From Orongo, Easter Island (Rapa Nui),
Polynesia, around AD 1000
‘Stolen or Hidden Friend'
Easter Island is famous for its stone statues of human figures,
known as moai. They were probably carved to commemorate
important ancestors and were made from around AD 1000 until the
second half of the seventeenth century, when the birdman cult
became more central to the Easter Islanders.
When Captain Cook's crew visited Easter Island in 1774, William
Hodges, Cook's artist, produced an oil painting of the island
showing a number of moai, some of them with hat-shaped
stone 'topknots'. Hodges depicted most of the moai
standing upright on stone platforms, known as ahu. With
the adoption of Christianity in the 1860s, the remaining standing
moai were toppled.
This example was probably first displayed outside on a stone
platform, before being moved into a stone house at the ritual
centre of Orongo. It was collected by the crew of the English ship
HMS Topaze, under the command of Richard Ashmore Powell,
on their visit to Easter Island in 1868 to carry out surveying
work. Islanders helped the crew to move the statue, which has been
estimated to weigh around four tons. It was moved to the beach and
then taken to the Topaze by raft. The figure was
originally painted red and white, though the pigment washed off in
the sea. The crew recorded the islanders' name for the statue,
which is thought to mean 'stolen or hidden friend'. They also
acquired another, smaller basalt statue, known as Moai Hava, which
is also in the collections of the British Museum.
Hoa Hakananai'a is similar in appearance to a number of Easter
Island moai. It has a heavy eyebrow ridge, elongated ears
and oval nostrils. The clavicle is emphasized, and the nipples
protrude. The arms are thin and lie tightly against the body; the
hands are hardly indicated. The back of the figure is carved with
designs, believed to have been added at a later date. The back of
the head shows a bird flanked by ceremonial paddles. The centre of
the back is carved with a 'ring and girdle' motif, as carved on
many wooden figures from Easter Island.
J.A. Van Tilburg, Easter Island: archaeology, ec (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)
J. A. Van Tilburg, HMS Topaze on Easter Island, British Museum Occasional Paper 73 (, 1992)
M. Caygill, Treasures of the British Museu, 2nd edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)
J. Van Tilburg, Hoa Hakananaia (London, British Museum Press, 2004)
P. Bellwood, The Polynesians: prehistory of, revised edition (London, Thames and Hudson, 1987)