Don’t get me wrong, of course it’s important that items are kept safely and nobody gets to walk off with shiny things. But it’s a bit hypocritical, because the British Museum is full of things stolen from all over the world, they even have a page about it.
The mokomokai are from the 19th century and were most likely created to meet demand from Europeans. It really annoys me that they refuse our national museum’s request to repatriate them.
I don’t think the British would like it if we had some of their great great grandfathers’ heads.
So someone stole some stolen items.
Don’t get me wrong, of course it’s important that items are kept safely and nobody gets to walk off with shiny things. But it’s a bit hypocritical, because the British Museum is full of things stolen from all over the world, they even have a page about it.
Including, as the page says, human remains.
The mokomokai are from the 19th century and were most likely created to meet demand from Europeans. It really annoys me that they refuse our national museum’s request to repatriate them.
I don’t think the British would like it if we had some of their great great grandfathers’ heads.