‘Rage, but also joy and completeness’: bringing New Zealand’s stolen ancestors home

The remains of Mori people taken by an Austrian taxidermist in 1877 and displayed in a Vienna museum have finally been returned

On the shorelines of Wellington, the sound of weeping poured out into the thick mist of the city harbour. A procession moved in slow, measured steps. Their heads were bowed and crowned with ferns. At the centre of the group walked 64 people, each cradling a beige cardboard box.

Inside those boxes are the remains of their ancestors, stolen in secret from their graves and kept for more than a century in a Viennese museum. The battle for their return has taken 77 years of negotiations, entreaties and diplomacy. At the ceremony on Sunday, each ancestor was carried inside, placed at the entrance to the marae (meeting house) and gently covered by woven blankets and feathered cloaks. The crowd sang, cried and laughed.