Natural History Museum Returns Moriori Remains

London’s Natural History Museum has returned 111 Kōimi T’chakat Moriori (Moriori skeletal remains) to New Zealand, as part of the largest single repatriation of such remains to date.

The remains of the indigenous people of the Rēkohu/Chatham Islands, were dug up and traded as artefacts with many ending up in the collection of the museum.

Maui Solomon, who chairs the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, said the repatriation fulfilled “an obligation to our ancestors.”

Solomon said: “Having suffered so much through the post-colonial contact history and then to have their remains taken offshore for research purposes, or curiosity, over 100 years ago – to actually be bringing them back home … is, in many ways, the ultimate honouring of our ancestors.”

Original article by Robert Dex, Evening Standard, July 9, 2022.