July 13, 2018
Humanity found in return of bones
TE HEREKIEKIE HEREWINI INTERVIEW
The head of repatriation at Te Papa Tongarewa says the programme has changed the way museums, medical schools and other institutions see indigenous peoples.
The national museum this morning welcomed back the remains of 18 Māori and Moriori ancestors from museums in the United States and Germany.
Te Herekiekie Herewini says they were collected and displayed at a time the Western World saw native peoples as curiosities and less than human.
It can take years of negotiation to before institutions stop making excuses and agree to let them go.
"We have to remind museums and governments overseas that they actually forgot what humanity was and returning our tupuna to us is part of being human," Mr Herewini says.
The toi moko and kōiwi tangata have been put into the musuem’s wāhi tapu pending DNA and other research into which tribal area they should eventually go back to.
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