A rōpū from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, has arrived in Aotearoa to formalise a partnership with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust.
At the centre are two Māori Curatorial Residencies, creating pathways for tauira to travel to Oxford and learn how to care for taonga held overseas.
Professor Irene Tracey of Oxford University says it is a significant moment.
“It’s the commitment specifically to fund the exchange of students so that they get the benefit, the future generation and generation to come and explore what the opportunities are for,” says Tracey.
But as opportunities grow offshore, pressure is building at home.
Repatriation efforts led by Karanga Aotearoa at Te Papa Tongarewa have returned more than 600 ancestral remains since 2003, with many more still held overseas.
Herekiekie Herewini says repatriation has always been part of tikanga.
“He tikanga mai rā anō wērā mea, te repatriation,” he explains.
“Engari he mahi tino uaua tēnei. [I] te nuinga o te wā, kāre rātou ngā tauiwi e hiahia ki te whakahoki mai wēnā kōiwi, wēnā toi moko, wērā tūpuna, wērā taonga. Koinā te kaupapa nui - ki te whakahoahoa ki ngā hapori ki tāwāhi.”
He says the challenge now is whether iwi are ready to care for returning taonga.
“Mā te iwi Māori e manaaki ngā taonga a ngā tūpuna, [engari] ināianei tonu kāore te nuinga o ngā marae, he whare [taonga] pēnei.”
Herewini says a collaborative effort is needed to move forward.
“Me kōrero tahi me ngā whare pupuri taonga kei waenganui o Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu [whawhiti] atu ki Rēkohu, ki te mahi tahi manaaki ki te tiaki wēnei taonga.”
At the Pitt Rivers Museum, there is a shift underway in how taonga are treated and understood.
Professor Laura van Broekhoven says many communities see taonga as living.
“A lot of communities actually feel that their taonga are alive, they’re breathing. They shouldn’t be locked away in case.”
Van Broekhoven says the partnership is particularly significant, acknowledging Te Arawa’s Makereti Papakura, who studied at Oxford in 1926.
“It’s time for us to revive that partnership and revive that really deep longing to work alongside each other.”
“I think a Māori are the example how open the world of how you’ve been able to revive language culture and really so grounded in genealogy and individual and ceremony. So today was very impressive.”
