May 29, 2017
Challenge to identify upokotoi
The remains of 59 Maori and Moriori ancestors were welcomed on to Rongomaraeroa Marae at Te Papa this afternoon, but their journey home is not completed.
The bones and toi moko or preserved heads were returned from museum and university collections in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
Pou Temara, the chair of Te Papa's repatriation advisory panel, says in Maori terms repatriating tipuna with their land and iwi is a great experience.
The remains will be held by the national museum while work continues to identify where the koiwi were collected, so they can be returned to iwi.
"We have more success with the remains as oposed to the preserved heads, because remains are documented well and we can almost tell where they come from. The great challenge to identify where upoko toi come from and we have about 500 at the moment in our vaults at Te Papa," Professor Temara says.
European institutions have become more willing to give up their ancestral remains, but American museums and universities still put a high bar on release.
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