Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
60 koiwi tangata have made the long journey home today
from the United States to Te Papa Museum in Wellington.
The ancestral remains belonging to 54 individuals,
including four toi moko, are being repatriated
by Washington DC's Smithsonian Institution.
Eruera Rerekura was there.
Tears flow as the koiwi tangata are repatriated from the US.
Te Papa's Kaihautu applauds museums
like the Smithsonian in Washington DC
for what they have done.
I'd like to acknowledge the museums in the US and UK
that have agreed to repatriated the remains of our ancestors.
There's no better outcome.
What's important is that they've returned home,
and eventually, back to their regions.
These koiwi tangata and toi moko were originally collected in 1874.
The majority of them are Maori,
however, some are Moriori from the Chatham Islands.
It's also a great honour NZ Police.
However, this was a great undertaking for Karanga Aotearoa.
They collaborated with museums globally
to repatriate koiwi tangata and toi moko to NZ.
Eruera Rerekura, Te Karere