Posted on 10/27/2007 8:18:20 AM PDT by blam
French museum tries to return Maori head
By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 24, 11:47 PM ET
AP Photo: This photo provided Wednesday Oct. 24, 2007 by the Rouen townhall, Normandy, shows a drawing...
PARIS - The Normandy museum only wanted to do what was right: It offered to return a preserved, tattooed Maori head to New Zealand, an attempt to restore dignity to human remains that were long put on display as an exotic curiosity.
Instead, authorities in the Normandy city of Rouen got a scolding from the culture minister for not checking with national authorities first. A Rouen administrative court ruled Wednesday that, pending a decision later this year, the Maori head must remain in France.
For years, New Zealand has sought the return of mummified Maori heads and other remains, many of which were collected by Westerners in a grisly exchange for weapons and other goods.
Rouen's Maori head was given to the city's natural history museum in unclear circumstances in 1875. It was on display there until 1996. The museum reopened this year after being closed for 10 years, which had allowed officials to take stock, and they decided the Maori head should be returned to New Zealand.
"This is an ethical gesture based on the respect for world cultures and the dignity of every human being," Rouen Mayor Pierre Albertini wrote on his blog. Sebastien Minchin, head of the Rouen museum, says returning the remains would help bring closure to "the hateful trafficking of another era."
Some of the Maori heads, displaying the intricate tattoos of warriors, were traditionally kept as trophies from tribal warfare. But once Westerners began offering prized goods in exchange for them, men were in danger of being killed simply for their tattoos, Rouen museum officials said. Some slaves were forcibly tattooed, then decapitated once their scars healed, to meet the demand, according to the museum.
Rouen planned a handover ceremony for the remains on Oct. 23. But on the eve of the event, French Culture Minister Christine Albanel issued a statement saying Rouen did not follow the proper procedures and asked an administrative court to halt the transfer.
"Such a decision requires the advice of a scientific committee, whose role is to verify that there is no unjustified damage to national heritage," the statement said.
The following day, the ceremony in Rouen went ahead, attended by Paris-based New Zealand diplomats. But it was merely symbolic, and the Maori head remains in a storeroom.
The New Zealand Embassy declined to comment on the issue.
Officials of Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand that handles such repatriations, said they were not concerned about the French government's intervention.
"It's an issue between the museum and the French government and they need to be comfortable that everything is being done according to their own systems," said museum spokesman Paul Brewer.
Paul Tapsell, the director of the Maori collection at the Auckland Museum, said the preserved head, known as a toi moko, could not be considered part of France's national heritage.
"Basically, we're talking about the protection of the trade in human beings," Tapsell said.
Olivier Henrard, legal adviser for the Culture Ministry, stressed that France wasn't in principle opposed to the return of human remains. In 2002, it returned the skeleton and organs of Saartjie Baartman, long displayed under the pejorative nickname of "Hottentot Venus," to South Africa.
But the ministry worried that Rouen's act would set a precedent for unilateral decisions.
"Today it's a Maori head, but tomorrow it could be a mummy in the Louvre," Henrard said.
The culture ministry plans an international conference to set guidelines for such cases. Officials from Paris' Quai Branly museum for the primitive arts — which itself has about half a dozen Maori heads in storage — would put the conference together.
In another upcoming case in Europe, Liverpool's national museums said they were preparing to return all their human remains to New Zealand. In September, Chicago's The Field Museum became one of the first major U.S. museums to repatriate Maori remains. Arapata Hakiwai, director of Maori treasures at the Te Papa National Museum, said then that his museum had acquired remains from more than 30 institutions worldwide since 2003.
Thats what happens when you try to get ahead.
French Maori head heads to New Zealand ahead of Liverpool head.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks Blam. Who wouldn't *want* a Maori head, that's what I wanna know. |
||
|
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Oh ick. Where’s the nearest head?
What that up on the road, a head?
Please add me to the “not a ping list.” Is there a secret handshake I need to learn?
None of this would have happened if they had just quietly buried the ugly thing under a hedge in the back yard.
This is news? French give head?
Maori heads
Thanks for the head’s up.
This is big news in NZ. For a number of years Maori have been seeking the repatiation of their ancestral body parts as a part of the Waitangi Treaty reparations — which is fair enough, how would you like it if someone went raiding thru the local morgue carrying off the body parts of your relatives to, say, Finland? — and they are indeed quite upset that the French Government just doesn’t “get it”.
(nothing new there)
The heads in question have elaborate facial tattoos, called “Moko” — these were chiseled in using very sharp rat’s teeth chisels — and were usually awarded to only the most prestigious Maori warriors as a pain-endurance thing. During the ordeal (which would last a very long time) the warrior was expected to not utter one sound.
If killed in battle, these heads would become war-prizes for the winning side.
After the arrival of the Europeans, tho’, there became this bizarre trade in heads for the museums of curious Europeans. The Maori weren’t stupid: they weren’t going to let an opportunity like that go by. So, they began tattooing the faces of their captured slaves, then chopping them off and selling them, too.
So some of the heads are prominent warriors, and some are not. But the Maori (quite understandably) would like the lot returned. Seems reasonable, I can’t see why the French would like to keep NZ body parts unnecessarily.
You have to go through Slings' initiation ritual first. It's very embarrassing, and your naked photos will be shown all over the internet afterwards.
I already wrestled in the vat of warm tapioca.
What more is left to do?
Hey, this is Slings' initiation, I'd never be warped enough to require this. After the tapioca vat, he made me stand naked in front of my computer screen and sing "I'm a little teapot", but that was a while back and they say it's gotten a lot worse since then.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.