Repatriation of Maori remains from Europe

A team of Te Papa officials has arrived in Europe to collect ancestral Maori remains for repatriation.

The remains of 33 Maori from the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, Sweden's Gothenburg Natural History Museum and Museum of World Culture, Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum in Scotland, and Trinity College in the Republic of Ireland will be returned to New Zealand later this month.

First stop was Cardiff where the skeletal remains of 12 Maori which had been part of the Welsh national collection, were handed to the Te Papa team overnight.

The skeleton of a woman and bones of 11 other people were originally taken from Great Mercury Island, off Coromandel Peninsula.

They were discovered in the museum's storage 80 years ago.

To prepare for their return - arranged by the Welsh museum in partnership with Te Papa - the bones were given a 60-minute repatriation ceremony.

Te Papa's repatriation manager Te Herekiekie Herewini thanked the Cardiff institution.

"This is significant for Maori as it is believed that through the ancestors' return to their homeland, the dead and their living descendants will retrieve their dignity, and also close the hurt and misdeeds of the past," he said.

Over the next fortnight the officials will continue collecting the remains of other Maori from Sweden, Glasgow and Ireland.

The relics will then all come back into the country on November 28, a Te Papa spokeswoman told NZPA today.

A powhiri would then be performed to officially welcome back their return on November 30.

Since 2004, the New Zealand authority which negotiates the return of Maori ancestral remains has repatriated bones from eight countries - bringing home 149 koiwi tangata (skeletal remains) and Toi moko (mummified tattooed heads).

- NZPA