This article was first published by RNZ
Two Moriori karapuna or ancestors returned to Aotearoa this week.
So far more than 500 ancestors have been repatriated, but work remains to bring home an estimated 150 who still remain in museums and institutions around the world.
Trustee on the Hokotehi Moriori trust board Hana-Maraea Solomon said it was massive just knowing the ancestors were back home.
“It’s extremely important to have them home, just knowing actually that they’re in our care again is really important.”
The repatriations were both significant and emotional mahi for the trust and the Moriori people, she said.
“We want to get away from considering them as remains, they’re people, those are our ancestors, so it’s right that they should come home. So it’s pretty emotional.”
The latest repatriation early this week was marked by a special pōwhiri and ceremony at Te Papa, and saw two Moriori ancestors or karapuna repatriated from the National Museum of Australia in Canberra to Te Papa after two years of collaboration.
The karapuna were held by the former Australian Institute of Anatomy’s holdings, identified through handwritten inscriptions and had been with the National Museum of Australia since 2022.
The ancestors would be held at the Te Papa wāhi tapu alongside 512 other ancestors until the Moriori community determined the right time to return them to Rēkohu.
Solomon said they were blessed Te Papa were allowing them to have their karapuna in the wāhi tapu.
“The intention is that they will come home to Rēkohu, we just need to finish the kaupapa right, we’re not there yet.”
It would be huge when that day came, Solomon said. She believed it would be the biggest ever repatriation in the history of Aotearoa.
Further repatriations were planned for later this year, with ancestors returning from the United States and the United Kingdom, she said.
Since 2003, the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme had returned nearly 500 Moriori ancestors, with the goal of bringing all Māori and Moriori ancestral remains home.
It was not “overnight mahi” Solomon said.
The repatriations often required years of consultation and engagement with museums, and every institution was different, she said.
“This mahi started over 20 years ago. Karanga Aotearoa have already helped us bring home around 560 karapuna already and we still have estimated about 150 to go.”
To use the recent repatriation from Canberra as an example, Solomon said she had been involved in the engagement for two years and even before that the work had spanned many years.
In 2022, more than 60 kōiwi of Moriori and Māori ancestors were returned to Aotearoa from the Natural History Museum in the Austrian capital, Vienna.
And in 2023, more than 100 Māori and Moriori ancestors were returned to New Zealand from museums in Germany.
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By Pokere Paewai of RNZ
