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Download PDF A French court has definitively quashed plans to return the preserved head of an indigenous Maori warrior from western France to New Zealand, judicial officials said on Wednesday.
Donated by a French collector in 1875, the head has been held since then in a museum in the western city of Rouen, which decided last year to return it as an “ethical gesture of respect” for the Maori people.
But the French culture ministry stepped in to block the transfer, arguing the head was now part of France’s cultural heritage.
On December 27, an administrative court ruled that city authorities had failed to consult a scientific committee before withdrawing the head from a national museum collection, definitively blocking the transfer.
The preserved heads of warriors with facial tattoos were popular with European collectors in the 19th century before their trade was outlawed.
New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, has been campaigning for the return of preserved heads and other human remains kept in overseas collections.
Following the settlement of New Zealand by mainly British Europeans from the 19th century, the indigenous Maori now make up about 15 percent of the country’s 4.1 million people.
However, New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, is still hopeful it could persuade France to return the preserved head of a Maori warrior despite the court ruling.
City authorities wanted to return the head as an “ethical gesture of respect for the Maori people.” But the court said they had failed to consult a scientific committee before withdrawing it from a national museum collection.
“What we’re hoping for is the Rouen museum and the French government will discuss this matter further,” Te Papa repatriation manager Te Herekiekie Herewini said.
“We’re leaving it up to the French government and we want to have further discussion about it in the near future. “We will be delighted if they come to a decision that the toi moko — the ancestor — is returned.”
The museum has been campaigning for the return of the heads for burial in their traditional tribal areas.
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