November 28, 2012
Koiwi tangata taken to Te Papa
A skull and a preserved head will be welcomed on to the marae at Te Papa today, the latest fruits of a long-running programme by the national museum to get koiwi tangata or Māori remains back from overseas museums, universities and private collections.
Two skulls were returned to Ngāti Hikairo in Kāwhia yesterday, 60 years after they were removed from a burial cave by a local farmer and given to a Stanford university anthropologist.
Te Herekiekie Herewini, from Te Papa, says the ancestors returning today are a Hawkes Bay skull taken by an academic to Oklahoma, and a tattooed head gifted by a collector to a Canadian museum.
He says the repatriation programme was instigated in the 1970s by museum board member Maui Pomare of Te Atiawa, who when he travelled overseas on museum work would ask museums to take Māori human remains off display.
"He would also adopt that around our own National Museum. In the 1970s I understand sometimes we had our own koiwi or toi moko on display, and so he started implementing a policy where tupuna were offered dignity and respect," Mr Herewini says.
Te Papa continues to contact the world's museums seeking koiwi tangata, and the high profile media coverage of the programme means it is also starting to get private sources coming forward and offering items for return.
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