‘We are inextricably linked’: Māori tribe urges Sotheby’s to return relics up for auction — New Zealand tribe says only a handful of its cultural taonga, or treasures, are left after successive waves of looting during colonial times
‘We are inextricably linked’: Māori tribe urges Sotheby’s to return relics up for auction — New Zealand tribe says only a handful of its cultural taonga, or treasures, are left after successive waves of looting during colonial times
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Excerpt:
>The auctioneer [Sotheby’s] is in the process of selling a number of Māori artefacts from around the 18th and 19th century – some of which local tribes say are crucial cultural taonga (treasures) and should be returned.
>Ngārimu Blair, deputy chair for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei people, said the tribe had only a handful of significant artefacts left, after most were lost in successive waves of looting by early “treasure hunters”, urbanisation and displacement.
>“We have so very few of these taonga and treasures left in our possession,” he said. “When something like this comes up where we’re both excited, but also that sorrowful that we lost so much.”
>The Sotheby’s auctions, which close in a week, include a carved pounamu (greenstone) club, or “mere”. It was originally given by Ngāti Whātua chief Pāora Tūhaere to a British vice-admiral in 1886, on condition it remained in the man’s family, according to a newspaper report at the time.
>As the mere has now passed out of the family’s hands it should be returned, Blair said, and the tribe hoped a future buyer would consider repatriating it.
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>“We hope those involved in this auction understand Tūhaere’s people are not extinct nor relics, and we are inextricably linked still to this taonga,” he said.
>Other New Zealand artefacts being sold by Sotheby’s this week include a Tewhatewha staff, and the remains of extremely rare New Zealand birds – the leg bones of the now-extinct four-metre (12ft) tall moa, and a brooch made from the beak of a huia, a wattlebird believed to be extinct since 1907.
>Sotheby’s has sold a number of high-value Māori artefacts, including some of unknown provenance.
Tess McClure in Auckland, 12 Jan. 2023.
Deprivation of cultural artefacts is merely one of the benefits of being conquered by the English Empire
I don’t think it’d be a good idea to bring up the Chatham Islands then
If these items were given as gifts rather than taken by force or stolen, on what grounds are they being claimed back?
We don’t need the artefacts here to learn from them. We could easily make models to display and work with Maori historians in New Zealand to learn more about the artefacts; it’s one of the benefits of academics working together across the world. Return the artefacts, try and repair some good will and let the idea that we own the world’s treasures because of what our ancestors did a few hundred years ago die off in the modern age.
SA needs their diamond first..
Much still needs to be returned to all the Nations they took crom
The list goes on..
Good examples Africa India the Caribbean..
Since everyone is discussing it,
for example The Roman Empire took a bunch of obelisks from Egypt, and plonked them in Roman cities, they are still there today, should Italy return them to Egypt? but they are also part of ancient Roman history though?
Returning them would be a good gesture, and I hope it happens. They’re up for auction anyway.
Here we go…it’s the new trend to ask for shit back.
Gifts are gifts, they should remain. Who cares if it would be a goodwill gesture to give it back. Seems like wasted time and energy on such bs.
Literal Indian giving in action. The Maori chief GAVE these to a British vice-admiral.