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William D. Sherman

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The Storehouse of Imperialist Thief

“The British Museum, with the support of Government,
continued to withstand demands for the return of parts
of its collection...”

from The Statement of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum, 1999.

Not happy that Tiki from Rurutu
      No sunshine in the BM
            He needs to go Home

You'd oppose cruelty to humans
      Cruelty to animals
            Bad mana the London Missionary Society

Bringing that Tiki with them
      Woe to they took it away

John Williams, 1821,
      18 years later
            he is eaten in Melanesia
                  Coconut radio got word out
                        - - - thieves about

Bligh no better, could have sailed to Tubuai
      a few hundred miles
            told his men in the boat
                  they are cannibal
To make his journey
      Not true - Tubuai
      not a cannibal island

& Cook, his mind went
      & he started killing Polynesians

What did he do, anyway
      Moa Tetua’s ancestors
            did not we
without sextant nor compass - -
      only the stars
            the swells
                  the clouds
                        the birds

 


mana - Tahitian for spiritual power

Moa Tetua - Foremost Tahitian poet of the 19th century, he was both blind and a sufferer from Hansen’s Disease. Four of his rari (love chants) were translated by Samuel Elbert and Muriel Rukeyser.

Page(s) 57

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