By Melissa Davies
Twenty Maori heads taken from New Zealand more than 200 years ago are finally on their way home after an emotional ceremony in Paris.
A French senator fought for five years to change the law so the Toi moko could be returned.
The saga has opened a worldwide debate about the holding of artifacts from other countries.
The French government passed a law specifically to allow the return of the Toi moko from nine museums and one university in France.
“At the end of the day they belong to all of Maoridom,” says Derek Lardelli, from Te Papa’s repatriation panel. “[There is] a wonderful proverbial saying: ‘Give me a piece of my soil that I may cry over.’ Well today we can cry for these ancestors and they can cry also because they will be going home to the soil from whence they came.”
The repatriation is largely thanks to French senator Catherine Morin-Desailly who personally campaigned for five years for the return of the Toi moko.
She faced resistance from those who thought it would open the floodgates from other countries on the return of artifacts.
But she says it is different when you are talking about human remains that were taken as souvenirs by French explorers.
“I thought it was legitimate to handover from the beginning what was acquired in perhaps illegal conditions or not properly anyway,” says Ms Morin-Desailly.
The Toi moko cannot be filmed because of their sacred nature but forensic scientists may soon examine them to reveal the stories of their past.
“I like to think that these tupuna have waited patiently and in some ways they are enabling us to have a lot more dialogue than we would have beforehand,” says Te Papa Kaihautu, Michelle Hippolite. “[There are] still interesting times ahead [and] discussions we need to have at home to see what else we need to know.
“Or whether we know enough to let them rest for a period as opposed to poking and prodding them.”
The 20 Toi moko will fly back to New Zealand immediately accompanied every step of the way by staff from Te Papa.
After 200 years away, the remains are finally on their way home.
Now in the care of their descendants, the Toi moko leave their former French guardians to continue the discussion about the line between ornament and ancestor.
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