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France is to give back to New Zealand the tattooed, mummified head of a Maori warrior in a gesture of spiritual healing and repugnance at the colonial-era trade in human artefacts.
The "toi moko" is believed to date from before the colonisation of New Zealand but ended up in France thanks to trafficking in human curios, say French researchers.
Under old Maori traditions, a warrior who fell in combat was decapitated and the head preserved and kept in a place devoted to his memory until the time was judged right for its burial.
European settlers who came to New Zealand in the late 18th century were fascinated by the heads. Several were bought and sent back to Europe. That sparked a fashion for "decorated heads" among European collectors, which in turn fed a grotesque trade back in New Zealand, which the British eventually outlawed in 1831.
The head will be handed back in a ceremony of restitution today to a New Zealand delegation including Tumu Te Heuheu, paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, and Dame Silvia Cartwright, former chairwoman of the New Zealand National Commission for Unesco.
The head was given to the Museum of Natural History in the Normandy city of Rouen by a man by the name of Drouet in 1875, said the museum's director, Sebastien Minchin. No more is known about the warrior or Drouet.
"We can find no trace in our records. It's possible that this man wanted to get rid of an object that had become a problem for him," said Mr Minchin, who slammed the selling of heads as "odious trafficking".
The head stayed on public display until the museum closed in 1996. The museum reopened in February, which was when curators, delving into the inventory, came across the head. After getting approval from the local council, which owns the museum, and the Ministry of Research and Higher Education in Paris, Mr Minchin opened talks with Te Papa museum in Wellington about how the head could be returned to its native land in dignity.
"The museum has been sensitive to Maori customs and it is keen to do the right thing," said Linda Te Puni, New Zealand's representative at the Paris-headquartered Unesco.
"There has been a very good three-way dialogue between the museum, the New Zealand Government and Te Papa."
Rouen Mayor Pierre Albertini said the return of the head had nothing to do with long-simmering rows about the legality of foreign artworks and artefacts in French museums.
"Under French law, human body parts do not come under the laws of national heritage, nor can they be owned by a public entity," he said.
"By returning the head, we seek to make an ethical gesture, rooted in respect for the culture of peoples and the innate dignity of every human being."
New Zealand began seeking the return of Maori remains in 1992. More than 30 institutions around the world have agreed to return such remains, including the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, which in March said it would repatriate at least 14 Maori.
This year Aberdeen University in Scotland handed back nine preserved and tattooed heads of Maori warriors it acquired in the early 19th century; in the past few years two other museums in Scotland also agreed to repatriate toi moko from their collections.
This is the first time France has handed back such remains and Rouen officials hope others will follow suit.
