Scots museum to return tattooed Maori heads

The tide continues to turn against the international practice of housing Maori human remains, with a Scottish museum agreeing to return two toi moko (tattooed heads) this year.

Councillors on Perth and Kinross Council's lifelong learning committee have agreed to a request by Te Papa Museum to return two toi moko stored in Perth Museum, 70km north of Edinburgh.

The Maori ancestral remains have been stored for more than 20 years in the museum's basement after it was accepted that their public display was inappropriate.

The shrunken heads were sent to Scotland by adventurer David Ramsay, a Perth-born ship's surgeon, who settled in Australia in 1822.

The agreement to return Maori human remains from two Scottish collections in less than a year highlights changing attitudes towards the remains of indigenous cultures.

Te Papa communication manager Paul Brewer said he was unaware of the display of any human remains, excluding Egyptian mummies, anywhere in the world.

"We have seen a change in understanding about the high cultural significance of these remains, and the need for their return."

But he said there were still more than 120 institutions in the world known to house human remains, which included toi moko, and various other bones and body parts.

He said Te Papa had contacted all the institutions and was in discussions to seek their return.

Most museums had come to accept since the 1960s that it was inappropriate for the items to go on public display.

The preserved heads are among a number of cultural curios sought by 19th-century museums.

In June last year Glasgow City Council agreed to return three preserved Maori heads.

The toi moko, along with a leg bone, were never put on public display and were locked away at the city's Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

A request for the return of the artefacts was made in March by New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa.

The first head in the Glasgow collection was bought in 1906 from Liverpudlian James Conrad Cross. A relative owned a curiosity shop and he may have obtained the head from that source, according to historians.

The leg bone of a Maori warrior chief killed in 1790 came into the trusteeship of the Glasgow council in 1936. Major Robert Walter Mellish, of the 4th Scottish Rifles, of Alderney, donated a large number of Maori items to Glasgow museums.

Major Mellish's uncle, George Mellish, lived in the South Island from 1858 to 1881 and fought in the New Zealand Wars, when he is thought to have collected the bone.

The other two heads were donated to Glasgow in 1951 by Archibald Shanks, a professional chemist and amateur natural historian, who bought both from the Blair Museum at Dalry in 1901.

Meanwhile, Aberdeen University is still considering a request from Te Papa to return nine preserved Maori heads from its Marischal Museum collection.

Te Papa planned to send a delegation to collect the remains later this year. Once returned, work on identifying the origins of the remains would begin.

Moko design and the recent history of the remains would help researchers to determine their region of origin and iwi.

Toi Moko

* More than 120 institutions throughout the world are known to house Maori human remains.

* The collecting of shrunken tattooed Maori heads was popular in the 19th century.

* Toi Moko were a traditional trophy taken by victors in Maori battles. However, a growth in demand by Europeans saw Maori tattoo then kill slaves to meet demand.

* The decision by Perth Museum to return the toi moko is the second by a Scottish museum in less than a year.

* Aberdeen University is still considering a request from Te Papa to return nine preserved Maori heads from its Marischal Museum collection.