In the early nineteenth century, the sculpture was given by the islanders to the London Missionary Society to mark their conversion to Christianity.

The lower legs, right buttock, and left arm of the sculpture are damaged, and the penis has been broken off completely.

While the other damage could be the result of deterioration over time, the severing of the figure's penis appears to have been deliberate, though it is not known whether it was by British missionaries or Polynesian converts.

[9] The statue of A'a is first recorded in 1821 when, on 9 August that year, it was presented to the missionaries of the LMS on Ra'iatea, the second largest of the Society Islands in French Polynesia.

[2] According to Rurutuan tradition, A'a is made from the wood of the pua keni keni (Fagraea berteriana) that is native to islands in the eastern Pacific, though tests conducted in 2015 suggested that the figure is in fact made from sandalwood, possibly Santalum insulare.

Ray or shark skin rasps, breadfruit leaves, cowrie shells and coconut oil would have been used to finish and polish the statue.

[2] In 2023, the British Museum loaned the statue to the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles for three years.

[22] Anthropologist Steven Hooper argues that in fact A'a was originally created as a casket to house the bones of a revered ancestor; the small gods were only placed into A'a for ease of transport to Ra'iatea.

[31] Copies of the figure have also been acquired by individual collectors, including the artists Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso, and Henry Moore, and a cast of A'a is today displayed in the mayor's office on Rurutu.