THE PRESS TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1983. Trade in human remains

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 20

THE PRESS TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1983. Trade in human remains

The decision by the Marquis of Tavistock to return to New Zealand a tattooed Maori head that he owns has delighted the Maori people, particularly the Ngati Porou, an East Coast tribe who believe the head to be that of one of their former chiefs. The Marquis had intended to sell the head by auction, unaware that by so doing he would give any offence. The indignation that news of the impending sale aroused was conveyed to the Marquis and to the auctioneers through the New Zealand High Commission in London. The result has been satisfactory. The Marquis will return the head personally. The New Zealand Government will meet the travel expenses of him and his wife, and this seems a pretty fair exchange of gestures. Outside this country, tattooed heads might be regarded simply as curios or examples of ethnic art. For Maori people, and many part Maoris, the heads retain an identity and a deeper significance. The traditional practice of taking the heads of beaten foes was a source of great pride for the victors and of great loss of face for the tribe of the fallen. Attempts to recover the heads of relatives often gave rise to new battles. The methods employed today to recover such trophies of bygone affrays are less extreme, but the sense of emotional attachment

is little reduced by the passage of time, if at all. Human remains eventually can become so removed from emotional interest—either by the passing of the years or by the loss of identity—that they can be regarded dispassionately. Nevertheless, the emotional links last at least as long as any suggestion of identity remains. Maoridom’s cultural emphasis on genealogical roots helps to preserve the sense of identity and intensifies the reverence for the relics of ancestors from generations long past, but the emotional link is only an extension in time of exactly the same feeling common to all races. Even when the trade in tattooed heads was at its height, many people, Maori and pakeha, criticised and condemned it. Nevertheless, the trade flourished briefly. The result was that many heads passed into museums and private collections round the world. These are not the remains of some neanderthal or cro-magnon man from the dawn of history; their antiquity is measured in decades, not thousands of years. The ownership of the heads might be beyond legal challenge, but the example set by the Marquis of Tavistock could encourage others to act similarly and return them. Most certainly they are not chattels to be hawked round the markets of the world.