New Zealand recovers many bones and skeletons of Maori and Moriori ancestors
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After 77 years of waiting, the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, has recovered many of the bones and skeletons of the ancestors of Maori and Moriori, New Zealand’s first inhabitants. Human remains were exhumed and stolen by an Austrian embalmer in the 19th century. A delegation from Vienna made the trip to return these human remains to New Zealand’s Aboriginal communities. Report during the redemption ceremony.
With our correspondent in Wellington, Richard Tendler
As is so often the case during ‘poweiri’, traditional Maori ceremonies, there was great emotion when the bones of the ‘tupuna’, Maori ancestors were restored.
Te Arikirangi Mamaku-Ironside leads the National Museum of New Zealand’s repatriation program. He explains why his steps are now necessary in our contemporary societies: ” I think it’s really important for museums to look in the mirror and think about the origins of their collections. In cases where the collections come, for example, from a colonial context, it requires special attention as to whether or not these objects have a place in the museum. »
Still another 600 around the world
In total, the Natural History Museum in Vienna donated the remains of 64 people. ” This “collection,” as they call it in museums, is much more important here in New Zealand than it will ever be to science or in Vienna. Explains Sabine Eggers, who runs the international collection of the Vienna Museum and was responsible for this recovery operation on the Austrian side.
Since 2003, New Zealand has recovered nearly 800 ancestral remains. It now hopes to return the remaining 600 around the world.
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