Maori heads set for return to New Zealand

Three preserved Maori heads – one belonging to a warrior chief with 40 wives - and a leg bone hidden away in a museum for almost a century could be on their way back to New Zealand.

The tattooed preserved heads, called toi moko, and the leg bone have never been on display. They have been kept under lock and key at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.

Tomorrow, councillors will decide whether the unusual artefacts should be sent back to their homeland.

The first head was purchased in 1906 from Liverpudlian James Conrad Cross, who ran a menagerie and later went on to become mayor.

A relative owned a curiosity shop and he may have obtained the head from that source, according to historians.

The leg bone of a Maori warrior chief killed in 1790 came into the trusteeship of the council in 1936.

Major Robert Walter Mellish, of the 4th Scottish Rifles, of Alderney, donated a large number of Maori items to Glasgow Museums.

Major Mellish’s uncle George Mellish lived in the South Island of New Zealand from 1858 to 1881 and fought in the Maori wars when it is thought he collected the bone.

The other two heads were donated to Glasgow in 1951 by Archibald Shanks, a professional chemist and amateur natural historian, who purchased both heads from the Blair Museum at Dalry in 1901.

An undated extract from the diary of Archibald Shanks states: “2 Maori heads received from Mr Rae Gordon at Blair, Dalry. 1. Tecaro Chief of Wycota, New Zealand, was killed in battle by Wa Tero Great Chief of Coweri. 2. Had 40 wives (new Zealand Chief).

Glasgow Museums are trustees of the artefacts, because legally human remains cannot be owned, and therefore the council can only possess them in a trustee capacity.

A request for their return was made in March this year and this has already been approved by the council’s newly-established Repatriation of Artefacts Working Group.

Councillor John Lynch, head of the working group and convener of the Cultural and Leisure Services Committee, said: “The council’s view has always been that each repatriation request should be considered on its own merits.

“The case put forward by the Te Papa Museum, combined with the information held by Glasgow Museums, was such that the Repatriation Working Group unanimously agreed that the return of the remains to their native culture was the right and proper thing to do.”

Members of the Cultural and Leisure Services Committee will be asked to approve the return of the remains following the request from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.