Tag Archives: Toi moko

Trapped in Museums for Centuries, Maori Ancestors Are Coming Home

Trapped in Museums for Centuries, Maori Ancestors Are Coming Home

Writing for Atlas Obscura, Ye Charlotte Ming has taken an in-depth look at the ongoing process of repatriation of Maori remains from international museums, quoting poet and musician Hinemoana Baker, researcher Amber Aranui and…

Berlin Museum Returns Toi Moko to New Zealand

Berlin Museum Returns Toi Moko to New Zealand

With a ceremony and prayers, Berlin’s ethnological museum has marked the official repatriation of two Toi Moko, or tattooed Māori heads, to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, Deutsche Welle…

US Returns Remains of 54 Indigenous People to NZ

US Returns Remains of 54 Indigenous People to NZ

Four mummified Maori heads have been returned to New Zealand, following five years of negotiations with the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. The objects are part of the second-largest repatriation of indigenous remains…

Maori to NY: Let our People Sleep the Sweet Slumber

Maori to NY: Let our People Sleep the Sweet Slumber

Pressure will be mounting on the American Museum of Natural History in New York to return sacred Maori remains to New Zealand after USA Today gave prominence to the issue of toi moko (tattooed…

Repatriation of Lost Ancestral Remains

Repatriation of Lost Ancestral Remains

A tattooed preserved Maori head, or toi moko, and skeletal remains, koiwi tangata, discovered in the anatomy department at the University of Birmingham, are being returned to New Zealand. University staff said the ancestral items…