Sidestep: Mokomokai

Below is an article I found in nzedge.com. It is about returning preserved heads (mokomokai).

Dignity for Relics

“For decades, New Zealand has campaigned for museums to repatriate the mummified and heavily-tattooed heads of Maori warriors held in collections worldwide — now it must decide what to do with the gruesome but culturally valuable relics,” Neil Sands writes for AFP. “Te Papa has more than 1 of the heads, known as toi moko, in storage, along with about 5 skeletal remains plundered from Maori graves as recently as the 1930s. Te Herekiekie Herewini, who leads Te Papa’s repatriation programme, said the heads of deceased chiefs or family members would be mummified as a way of preserving their spirit, while enemies’ heads were preserved as war trophies. ‘Initially the mummification of heads and bodies was part of our normal mourning process,’ Herewini said. He said repatriating remains was an emotional issue for Maori, who had a strong connection to the land and wanted to give the warriors the dignity of a proper funeral. Far North tribe Ngati Kuri to bury them near Te Rerenga Wairua, or Cape Reinga, the northernmost point in New Zealand, where Maori believe the spirits of the dead depart for the afterlife.

I have always been curious as to why modern Maori want to bury heads that were supposed to be, culturally, in boxes and brought out for display for special occasions and only within the village they belonged to. I'm just an ignorant pakeha, but burying them is definitely not cultural. The captured chiefs heads were even displayed openly - so as to mock them. There were never buried. Sometimes they would return heads in peace negotiations that is how revered these heads were before the musket wars. A genuine Maori chiefs head is a very sacred and revered item.

But not all were genuine. We could ask why Maori tattooed slaves and sold the heads to Europeans if the moko was sacred. However, the Maori were savvy traders. The question for me is: how do we know which head is a chief and which is a slave with a moko designed to appease the traders? The old journals talked about this occurring and all they did was write down what they saw and heard. Of course now days many Maori would say that is untrue - mainly because they do not want to believe it - but then lets ask why Maori traded their revered and sacred heads in the first place! Yes, a few were stolen. But the rest were traded as muskets were keenly sought after during the wars. Articles say that the demand for firearms was such that tribes carried out raids on their neighbours to acquire more preserved heads for trade. In this regard Ngapuhi were the most prolific traders. They also tattooed slaves and prisoners (though they say mostly with meaningless motifs rather than genuine moko) in order to provide heads to order.

I challenge the inference that slaves heads were tattooed with meaningless motifs. Why? Because you can't show me one. That raises only two possibilities. No slaves were tattooed, or they were given proper designs. After all, the traders weren't stupid. They could see a fake easily if they were constantly trading in them,

The figure standing to the left of the canoe's sail in this 1770 drawing is holding a tattooed and preserved human head. The scene was drawn by artist Sydney Parkinson during British explorer James Cook's first voyage to New Zealand. This is a drawing of an observation and could have been part of a significant cultural event at the time.