Moral repatriation

More than a dozen mummified Maori heads could be returned to New Zealand once a French bill is approved by the Senate in Paris. “The Maori heads that are still dispersed in European and US museums have a history that reminds us of the worst hours of colonialism,” read the summary of the draft bill. France’s culture ministry blocked the return of a Maori chief’s head from a museum in Rouen to Te Papa in 2008 saying the move could mean that France would have to return mummies to Egypt. The culture ministry has said, however, that it favours the current proposal. “During the colonisation of New Zealand, Europeans became interested in these tattooed human heads, a Maori tradition, and private collectors began a real hunt for heads that became the object of a barbaric trade,” the bill said. Returning the heads is “an expression of respect that we owe to the beliefs of a population that has been calling for the return of these heads in order to bury them in a dignified way that is respectful of Maori traditions”, one senator said.