Maori warrior heads return home

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Sat, 21 Jan 2012 6:12p.m.

Maori warrior head will return to New Zealand after around 200 years in French museums

Maori warrior head will return to New Zealand after around 200 years in French museums

By Jennifer Humphreys

Final preparations are being made to bring home a collection of Maori warrior heads that have been held in French museums for about 200 years.

Western explorers took the Toi Moko to Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and many have remained there ever since.

Now a delegation organised by Te Papa museum, has arrived to bring the Maori warrior heads home after hundreds of years on the other side of the world.

Ahead of the reparation scientists and forensic investigators have come together to share their findings on the heads at the Natural History Museum in Paris.

There was a thriving trade in the warrior heads in the 18th and 19th century and it is been a lengthy process to bring them back to New Zealand where research will be carried out so they can be returned to their place of origin.

It has taken nearly ten years to get the repatriation to take place, and the heads, which cannot be filmed because of their sacred nature, will arrive in Wellington next Thursday

Last year the Museum of Rouen in Northern France handed back a warrior head, but Te Papa estimates there are hundreds of remains that still need to be returned to New Zealand.

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Comments

25 Jan 2012 01:56p.m.

debz wrote:

most people move to aussie cause their is no jobs here not because of maori bullshit anyways get over it they are on there way home where they belong if your gonna get all highly upset about your taxes then move to aussie.

24 Jan 2012 01:03p.m.

john wrote:

What a waste of money, just more of the gravey train help yourself to our hard earnt taxes. Sold my maori in the first place, no wonder so many go to Aussie to get away from all this maori bullshit..

23 Jan 2012 02:10p.m.

Justice wrote:

well said Kiwi, totally agree, though there has always been one rule of one and another completely different rule for the others and the others dare never to protest or they are labelled racist, sad very sad.

22 Jan 2012 05:32p.m.

george wrote:

Would it be culturally insensitive, to suggest that the tatooed heads may have been traded to the Europeans for Iron pots,so as the rest of the unfortunate could boiled up for a Hangi.

22 Jan 2012 11:56a.m.

atrout wrote:

An amazing amount of academic denial is going on here. Most of the heads which left these shores were actually of slaves who were tattooed and then killed for the heads - eventually to be sold off as curios to passing Europeans to take home for display. Using enamel analysis may say something about the origins of the heads but not the groups which sold them off as souvenirs. The staff of te Papa knows this but go along with the charade as part of their ethic of employment with our National Museum. The whole te Papa exercise is very expensive and is paid out of a budget which is stretched by anyone's reckoning.

21 Jan 2012 10:59p.m.

Peter wrote:

Please dont speculate as to who funds this, you don't know the details. If you had understanding of maori culture then you would understand why it is important for these heads to return home, As per the pike river jibe, mate its unsafe and expensive, i can see the hypocisy in paying to get the bodies back, but adding to the number is plain daft, WHERE IS YOUR GUYS PATRIOTISM, THIS ISNT MAORI VS PAKEHA This is NEW ZEALAND getting back what is OURS.

21 Jan 2012 07:22p.m.

Erm... wrote:

Who paid for the large group to go over to France? Oh, that's right, me...

21 Jan 2012 07:22p.m.

Neil wrote:

So my question is after spending on this time and money on getting some maori heads back, when is Te Papa going to return our collection of Egyptian bodies back to their home. As an aside - if these heads are deemed sacred to Maori what about the bodies of all our soldiers killed overseas - shouldn't they be brought home too - they are also warriers.

21 Jan 2012 07:03p.m.

Kiwi wrote:

Interesting! The NZ government goes out of its way to spend 10 years and an undisclosed amount of NZ taxpayers money to organise for the return of mummified Maori heads from France to NZ Iwi (Maori family tribes) and the heads are so sacred they cant even be filmed! - yet 29 once hard working Pakeha men's bodies lay rotting in a workplace at Pike River Mine as a result of government incompetence and the NZ government wont fund their recovery for a decent burial with their families! Sounds like blatant racism, political favoritism and hypocrisy to me!