A ceremony to hand over Māori and Moriori artefacts held at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Photograph: Leif Piechowski/Leif Piechowski / Lichtgut Stuttgart.[Twitter]
Wed 14 June 2023:
95 Indigenous New Zealanders’ remains, as well as artifacts and cultural treasures, have been returned to New Zealand from museums and colleges in Germany.
The 95 Maori and Moriori individuals ancestral bones, including six toi moko – Maori mummified tattooed skulls – were welcomed to Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum, in a special ceremony on Wednesday.
New Zealand Ambassador to Germany Craig Hawke said the bones were being repatriated after “more than a century away from their homeland” and in a manner that highlighted the “mature and close relationship” between Berlin and Wellington.
“Our relationship goes deeper than a traditional diplomatic relationship, to one of culture, science and knowledge exchange. These repatriations are a poignant example of our collaborative partnership,” Hawke said.
Ngā mihi nui and Dankeschön to all German Institutions for their collaboration and commitment to the Karanga Aotearoa #Repatriation Programme. You showed respect and understanding towards #Aotearoa, #Māori and #Moriori, and demonstrated a strong sense of doing the right thing.🤝 pic.twitter.com/9Li1MpuUTD
— Craig Hawke (@NZinBerlin) June 12, 2023
The Te Papa museum’s head of repatriation Te Herekiekie Haerehuka Herewini said “significant respect and understanding” and a “strong sense of doing the right thing” had been shown by the German institutions involved.
“As we celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations between Aotearoa New Zealand and Germany, these repatriations demonstrate the mature and close relationship we share,” he said.
The Grassi Museum in Leipzig, the Reiss Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, the Linden Museum, the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History, the Georg August University in Gottingen, the Roemer und Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, and the Museum Wiesbaden returned the remains and other artifacts on Wednesday.
Berührende Zeremonie: Kunstministerin@OlschowskiPetra hat sterbliche Überreste von Vorfahren – Tupuna – an Vertreterinnen und Vertreter der Māori Community und des neuseeländischen Nationalmuseums Te Papa Tongarewa zurückgegeben: https://t.co/Xvw9tjxRPN
📷Piechowski/Lichtgut pic.twitter.com/jGdJHHP8pp— wissenschaft.kunst.bw (@mwk__bw) May 31, 2023
The remains and other artefacts repatriated on Wednesday were returned by the Grassi Museum, Leipzig, the Reiss Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim, Linden Museum, The Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History, the Georg August University in Gottingen, the Roemer und Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim, and Museum Wiesbaden.
In the early 1800s there was a brisk and lucrative trade of Māori tattooed and mummified heads, which were sought after by collectors – and until the 1970s the remains of Maori and Moriori were being widely traded as curiosities or objects of scientific interest. A number of the skulls that have ended up in international institutions were stolen from sacred grave sites.
In an effort to rectify the nation’s “dark colonial past,” Germany returned 20 ancient bronze sculptures to Nigeria in December, according to the country’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock.
The sculptures, also referred to as Benin bronzes, were among thousands of items stolen by British troops from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, which is now a part of southern Nigeria. Other foreign nations, particularly Germany, came into possession of some of the valuables.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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