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Last-minute talks have avoided friction between iwi and Te Papa over plans to display mummified human remains at an upcoming exhibition.
The Herald understands that kaumatua from South Island iwi Ngai Tahu met museum staff yesterday to voice concern over the display of 2700-year-old mummified remains in the exhibition Egypt: Beyond the Tomb, which opens this weekend.
It is understood the elders considered the display inappropriate and disrespectful of the dead.
Ngai Tahu is Te Papa's resident iwi, following the launch in July of Mo Tatou: Ngai Tahu Whanui, a two-year exhibition showcasing the tribe's taonga and history at the museum.
A spokesman for Ngai Tahu confirmed that elders met museum officials but declined to comment on the nature and outcome of discussions.
A Te Papa spokesman, Paul Brewer, said the museum had done all it could to respect the wishes of iwi and the display would go ahead.
Mr Brewer said the mummy of Keku, the young daughter of Namenekhamun, chief butcher in a Thebes temple, would be housed in a separate room to the main exhibition, with signage warning those offended by the display of human remains not to enter.
He said the mummy was central to the exhibition, which explores death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt through the young woman's story.
Ngati Whatua kaumatua Danny Tumahai, who is the Taumata-a-iwi chairman of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, said the exhibition would need to be looked at closely before it moved to Auckland next year.
"Tupapaku [corpses] on display anywhere in Maori terms would be something that's considered tapu, and we would want to have some discussions on it," he said.
Auckland Museum displays a 2500-year-old mummy from Akhmim, in Egypt - but Mr Tumahai said tangata whenua, Ngati Whatua, did not object to it. "That was because the right protocols and decisions were put in place," he said.
Auckland Museum obtained the mummy in 1958 in exchange for several Pacific objects.
The display of Maori ancestral remains in collections overseas has frustrated Maori for years.
