New Zealand: Mummified Maori heads returned

THE mummified heads of 20 Maori warriors have been handed back to New Zealand after spending more than 130 years in museums in France.

The macabre artefacts were presented to New Zealand officials at a ceremony in Paris yesterday.

They will now be returned to their homeland where they can be buried according to Maori traditions.

French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand and New Zealand’s ambassador Rosemary Banks presided over a solemn ceremony at Quai Branly museum in Paris, where the heads were encased in a box.

The event marks the largest single handover of Maori heads to be repatriated since 2003, the New Zealand embassy said.