The ancestral remains, or karāpuna in Moriori dialect, were casually dug up by colonists to trade as curiosities and, for up to 100 years since, have been in collections at the Natural History Museum in London and across Aotearoa New Zealand. But on Friday morning, under rainy skies in Wellington, they were finally returned to their people, in a touching ceremony held at Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum. There, the remains will be temporarily kept in a wāhi tapu – a sacred resting place – before being taken back to their rightful resting place in Rēkohu. Wāhine (women) placed mantles over the remains during the Moriori repatriation ceremony. Photo: Hagen Hopkins The Natural History Museum in London returned 111 Moriori ancestral remains and two Maori ancestral remains. At the same time, nearly 200 carapuns have been returned from five domestic museums and universities, in the largest domestic repatriation. The overseas repatriation – the culmination of 15 years of research and negotiations – marks the first time the Natural History Museum has agreed to return ancestral remains to New Zealand. “It’s an obligation to our ancestors,” says Maui Solomon, the president of the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, who had tears in his eyes during the ceremony. Maui Solomon, chairman of the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, said an obligation to the ancestors had been fulfilled. Photo: Hagen Hopkins “For them to have suffered so much from post-colonial contact history and then take their remains offshore for research or curiosity over 100 years ago – to actually bring them back home… is, from in many ways, the absolute honor of our ancestors.” Moriori and Maori respect their ancestors, Solomon said, adding that the karapuna would feel “emotional and happy” to hear their language, which is in the process of being revived, spoken at the ceremony. “They are the shoulders we stand on [on] today… to say ‘you haven’t been forgotten, we did everything we could to bring you home from all over the world’… it’s quite emotional.”
A change in museum culture
New Zealand, like all colonized countries, has a painful history of stolen and traded indigenous remains. The repatriation is the culmination of 15 years of research and negotiations. Photo: Hagen Hopkins From 1769 to the 1970s thousands of Maori and Moriori ancestral remains were treated as tradable commodities, curiosities and objects of scientific interest. The trade in toi moko (tattooed mummified heads) peaked between the early 1800s and 1820s. But since the 1970s, New Zealand has had a strong history of asking these scraps back from overseas. In 2003, the country established its first government-funded international repatriation program: Karanga Aotearoa. It has now seen the return of 800 Maori and Moriori remains. Its manager, Te Herekiekie Herewini, said the Natural History Museum was approached in 2003 and it took until 2018 to reach an agreement. This is partly related to the way the British government and its museums have looked at ancestral remains, Herewini said. “These remains were simply objects that they could own, they could collect, and they could transport … so their policies reflected that: they owned these skeletal remains, and we needed permission from them for our ancestors to return home.” More than 100 fossils were returned by the UK’s Natural History Museum. Photo: Hagen Hopkins The Natural History Museum said the repatriation was an important moment, with director Doug Gurr adding that the museum was committed to talking to governments and communities that wanted to claim the remains back. “The repatriation of remains to countries and communities of origin is part of a process of healing and reconciliation,” Gurr said. A global repatriation movement is now forcing cultural institutions around the world to question their notions of occupation. In recent years, European museums have submitted requests from Egypt, Italy, Chile, Australia, Canada and Gibraltar, among others. The Natural History Museum has around 27,000 skeletal remains in its collection, of which around half are from outside the UK. There are believed to be another 200 New Zealand remains in his collection that are not part of this repatriation effort. “We are only one of a number of indigenous peoples, so it takes a long time,” Herewini said, adding that everyone’s origins and DNA must be assessed. Karanga Aotearoa has seven other repatriation processes underway with overseas institutes in the US and Europe. “At the end of the day, this institution decides what it wants to do. We can just knock on the door and ask.” Moriori representative Kiwa Hammond speaks during the repatriation ceremony. Photo: Hagen Hopkins It is also an important step for domestic institutions reckoning with their own colonial legacy in the acquisition, trade and possession of ancestral remains. Solomon, who attended the official handover ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London last week, said the repatriation marked a change in the way colonial cultural institutions recognized the importance of ancestral remains. “These colonial institutions have definitely moved on from where they were 10, even five years ago … that’s really positive.” He praised Karanga Aotearoa for their “unremitting commitment and passion for this project” over the past 20 years and the government for funding the project. “I think it’s useless and it helps other institutions overseas to see that this is the right thing to do.”
