Presentation of Statue of A'a

Date: August 9, 1821 • Location: Raʻiātea, International

A statue of the Polynesian god A'a was presented to members of the London Missionary Society on the south Pacific island of Ra'iatea.

A wooden sculpture of the god A'a was made on the Pacific island of Rurutu in the Austral archipelago most likely in the late 1500s to mid 1600s. In the early nineteenth century, the sculpture was given by the islanders to the London Missionary Society to mark their conversion to Christianity. Subsequently, the sculpture was brought back to England to be displayed, first in the museum of the LMS and then in the British Museum. The figure of A'a is famous as one of the finest surviving pieces of Polynesian sculpture, and in the twenty-first century the sculpture is, according to Julie Adams, curator of the Oceania collection at the British Museum, "an international celebrity".