This moai kavakava was in the ownership of Alexander Ariipaea Salmon when the ‘SMS Hyäne’ expedition led by Wilhelm Geissler stopped in Rapa Nui in 1882.

Alexander Ariipaea Vehiaitipare Salmon (1855–1914) was a son of the Scottish colonist and merchant Alexander Salmon (1822–1866) and his wife Ariitaimai (1821–1897), a Tahitian aristocratic and daughter of Tati, an important chief of Teva’s chiefhood of Papara (Adams 1964; Pomare 1971). Ariipaea’s father was the co-owner of the Maison Brander plantations on Tahiti (Gossler 2005). Ariipaea after his father’s death was the principal commercial partner of John Brander (1817–1877), another Scottish colonist who was married to his sister, Titaua Salmon (1842–1898), also known as Tetuanui Reiaitera‘iatea Titaua Salmon, or ‘Princess Titaua Marama of Tahiti’ (Adams 1964; Pomare 1971).

The Salmon and Brander families were one of the most important families in Tahiti during the Pōmare Dynasty (1788–1881) as evidenced, for example, in the establishment of an economic empire (Brander acquired lands in East Polynesia, including Rapa Nui), newly created political alliances (in the Pōmare Court) as well as other diplomatic networks. We identified that John Brander and Titaua Salmon’s daughter, Marion Brander, was married to Gustav Godeffroy who was the German consul in Tahiti between 1877–1883 (O’Reilly and Teissier 1975); his other daughter Margaret Brander was married to Heinrich August Schlubach – who was the Chilean consul in Tahiti between 1872–1873 (Avilés Morgado 2018), and the German counsul in Valparaiso, Chile, between 1876–1882 (O’Reilly and Teissier 1975). 

Alexander Ariipaea Salmon lived in Rapa Nui between 1879 and 1888 working as the principal administrator of the Brander-owned ranch on the island. He moved to Rapa Nui accompanied by twenty Tahitian workers; however, some of them could be of Rapanui descent, and born in Tahiti (Muñoz 2017). He is mentioned in the report Die Oster-Insel: Eine Stätte prähistorischer Kultur in der Südsee by Wilhelm Geissler (1883), captain of the German S.M.S. Hyäne, which stopped in Rapa Nui in 1882, as well as in the book by William Thomson (1891), paymaster of the American warship USS Mohican, which stopped in Rapa Nui in 1886, as one their most important informants on Rapanui culture and history. He spoke English, Tahitian and, in addition, understood some Rapanui. It is vital to note that he was not only a collector of Rapanui carvings, tools and, human remains between 1879 and 1888, but also promoted among the Rapanui people the production of carvings for sale (Fischer 2005; Lavachery 1949). Although he himself never published any text, his accounts of the history of Rapa Nui were the basis for the compilations and early accounts of Rapanui culture by Geissler and Thomson.

Bibliography

Adams, Henry. 1964. Mémoires d’Arii Taimai. Paris: Société des Océanistes.

Avilés Morgado, Frank. 2018. Antecedentes, contactos, caminos no tomados y presencia consular chilena en territorios del Pacífico (1800–1888). PhD Dissertation, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Fischer, Steven Roger. 2005. Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island. London: Reaktion books.

Geiseler, Wilhelm. 1883. Die Oster-Insel: Eine Stätte prähistorischer Kultur in der Südsee. Berlin: E.S. Mittler und Sohn, Königliche Hofbuchhandlung.

Gossler, Claus. 2005. The Social and Economic Fall of the Salmon/Brander Clan of Tahiti. In: The Journal of Pacific History 40 (2): 193–212.

Lavachery, Henri. 1949. L’art vivant de l’île de Pâques. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes 5: 163–170.

Muñoz, Diego. 2017. Diaspora Rapanui (1871–2015). L'île de Pâques, le Chili continental et la Polynésie française: Une ethnographie historique de la mobilité dans une société transnationale. PhD dissertation, EHESS-CREDO, France.

O’Reilly, Patrick and Raoul Teissier. 1975. Tahitiens: Répertoire biographique de la Polynésie française. Paris: Musée de l'homme, Société des Océanistes.

Pomare, Ariimanihinihi Takau. 1971. Mémoires de Marau Taaroa, dernière reine de Tahiti. Paris: Société des Océanistes.

Thomson, William J. 1891. Te Pito te Henua, or Easter Island. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum.