International reconciliation and strong cultural bonds are being realised as 20 Toi Moko (Māori ancestral heads) return to Aotearoa New Zealand from museums and institutions in France.  The remains will return home to New Zealand as part of work of the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme.

The programme, supported by the New Zealand Government has been liaising with representatives of the French government who have been supportive of bringing these ancestors home.  In particular Te Papa wishes to acknowledge the leadership of the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand for his desire to reconcile the past.     

In 2009 the French Parliament’s Senate or Upper House adopted a bill seeking the repatriation of Toi Moko (Māori heads) to New Zealand. A year later in May 2010 the bill became law after consideration by the French National Assembly or Lower House.

“Minister Mitterand has been instrumental in helping to reconcile the past and bring Māori communities and their ancestors closer together.  His support for repatriation helps indigenous people understand the circumstances of how and why these ancestors were taken and gives them an opportunity to reunite with them physically and spiritually” says Michelle Hippolite, Kaihautū at The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

These sentiments are also supported by Michael Houlihan, Chief Executive at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa who says “many museums are returning ancestral remains to their communities of origin.  This is a positively move and helps to build enduring relationships between these museums and communities”. 

A repatriation handover ceremony will take place at Quai Branly in Paris on 23 January 2012 where 20 Toi Moko will be farewelled by the French government. They will be welcomed back to New Zealand, in a welcoming ceremony at Te Papa on 26 January 2012.   

TOI MOKO HELD IN FRANCE

23 JANUARY 2012

Background information:

1.       The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) is repatriating 20 Toi moko (Māori ancestral) from 10 French institutions at 10 am on Monday 23 January 2012 (French standard time).  

2.       The handover ceremony is at the prestigious Quai Branly Museum in Paris and led by the French Ministry of Culture in collaboration with museums throughout France.

3.       The returning Toi moko are held at the following institutions in France:

What we know about Toi moko in France

4.       The first French explorer who arrived in New Zealand was Jean-Francois-Marie de Surville, who arrived in the North Cape on 16 December 1769.  This was shortly after Captain Cook’s arrival on the Endeavour.  Surville’s expedition into the Pacific was in search of the great southern continent, and his stop over in New Zealand was for fresh water and supplies, as his crew was stricken with scurvy.  (Salmond 1991,“Two Worlds”)

5.       From this earliest encounter with Māori the French noted the art of Māori moko or tattooing.  On board the French vessel named St Jean Baptise was crew member Pottier L’Horme who gave his description and perspective of Māori tattoo as he encountered amongst the people of Tokerau (also known as Doubtless Bay).  L’Horme wrote

“The painting [tattooing] of the face is a mark of distinction, so that they do not all have painted faces, and those that do have the face painted do not all have it done in the same way”.  (Salmond 1991,“Two Worlds”).

6.       From these early encounters with Māori communities the French expeditions wrote about their visits but also acquired curiosities to take home to France.  Some of curiosities included Toi moko or Māori tattooed heads.

7.       The trade in Toi moko from New Zealand took place between 1770 and the 1860s.  Some are the heads of tribal rangatira (chiefs) and toa (warriors) whose uri (living descendants) still live within their tribal territories.  These ancestors died during the active process of preserving the mana (prestige and dignity) of their families and communities.  Their heads taken during battle, mummified and offered for trade to Europeans in exchange for muskets, gun powder, and other foreign goods.

8.        Other heads are said to be those of captives or slaves whose heads were specifically tattooed for the trade.  Historian and moko enthusiast H.G Robley  wrote

“The chiefs were not slow in taking advantage of the discovery, and set to work to kill the least valuable of their slaves, tattooing their heads first…as though they had belonged to men of high rank, drying them and then selling them.”  (Robley 1998, “Moko the Art and History of Māori Tattoing”)

9.       For Māori living during this period, the tribal identity was paramount, and many tribal groups seemed to have taken a pragmatic approach to the trade of Toi moko, as part of a strategy to ensure access to new weapons such as muskets, which ensured their survival against traditional and new enemies.  

10.   French museum records indicate some of the Toi moko are associated with the following French collectors and explorers who travelled into the Pacific including Hyacinthe de Bougainville, Auguste Berard, Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet, brothers René Primevère Lessonand Pierre-Adolphe Lesson, and Dumont d’Urville.

11.   However, further research is required to uncover crucial information that will help the Toi moko return to their communities of origin within New Zealand.

Accession information: Toi moko housed in French museums:

Musee Quai Branly, Paris. (7 Toi moko)

12.   Musee Quai Branly has 7 Toi moko, with two possibly being collected by the French explorer called Freycinet in Port Jackson Sydney in 1819.

Museum de Nantes (1 Toi moko)

13.   This Toi moko is associated with French expeditions to the Pacific in the mid 1820s.  It has been housed at the Nantes Museum since 1826, and was given by François-Louis Busseuil (1791-1836) a navy surgeon on board of “la Thétis” whose captain was Hyacinthe de Bougainville (1782-1846).

Museum de Lille (1 Toi moko)

14.   This Toi moko is associated with a collector called Alphonse Moillet who is known to have gathered objects from Europe, North Africa and the Americas.

15.   The head was part of a collection that was put under the supervision of the Lille Natural History Museum in 1990.  Prior to this date, this collection had been kept in storage for a hundred years. The original collection was donated to the city of Lille by Alphonse Moillet in 1850. The donation act lists a "head of a New Zealand chief" which is likely to be this artefact.

16.   Moillet who bought this head never travelled to New Zealand, and it is believed he bought it from a merchant or a sailor

Musee des Beaux-Arts of Dunkirk (1 Toi moko)

17.   Information gathered about this Toi moko indicates it is most likely associated with Feycinet’s expeditions to New Zealand and the South Pacific. 

Musee de Sens (1 Toi moko)

18.   The Sen Museum holds a Māori head that originates from the collector Alfred Lorne.  It was given by Alfred Lorne’s heirs to the museum in 1844. It was gathered, it seems, during the voyage of the Astrolabe captained by Dumont d’urville in 1827.

Musee des Arts Africans, Oceaniens, Ameridiens d Marseille (1 Toi moko)

19.   This Toi moko was collected by Henri Gastaut (1915-1995) who had a private collection of skulls from different parts of the world.  He was a doctor, biologist and neurologist.

University of Montpellier(1 Toi moko)

20.   This Toi moko may have been collected by Auguste Berard who travelled to the Pacific three times between 1817 and the 1840s. 

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