Ancestral remains have begun their journey home from Australia to New Zealand after a handover ceremony in Canberra. Speeches at the National Museum of Australia acknowledged the long history of collecting and looting indigenous remains by museums and academic institutions but also recognised the substantial work now being done to right the wrongs of the past.
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00:00A long way from home, the remains of two Māori ancestors have begun their journey back to
00:13where they belong.
00:14A sense of healing, reconnection and joy actually, joy that we're at this point where we're
00:22going home, they're coming home with us.
00:24The skeletal remains were likely stolen from their home on Rēkahu or Chatham Islands to
00:29the southeast of New Zealand between the late 1800s and the 1930s.
00:34They've been held in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra since 2022, but were
00:39originally part of the former Australian Institute of Anatomy's collection.
00:44After years of talks, custodianship and care of the ancestors has been officially transferred.
00:50It's probably one of our most significant things that we can do to represent our people
00:55is to bring our karapuna home, our ancestors home, it is an absolute honour and privilege.
01:05Research will be undertaken to determine how they ended up in Australia and who may have
01:10taken them.
01:11It's really my job to give the bones back their stories and humanise that process before
01:16they go home.
01:17They'll now be brought to the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papua, where they'll be held alongside
01:22hundreds of other Māori ori.
01:24They'll stay there until it's determined the time is right for the ancestors to return
01:28to their home.
01:30It's refreshing to know that there's institutions around the world that actively inform about
01:35the repatriation process.
01:38Work is still ongoing to return dozens of remains from other institutions.