20 years ago, Argentina bought a rancher to New Zealand with the mummified head of a Maori warrior.

A process that began two decades ago, in 1980, ended when Maori communities began claiming the right to recover collections and human remains that had reached Europe and America as a result of looting during the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2004, the Juan Bautista Ambrosetti Ethnographic Museum belonged to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Returned – on his own initiative – to New Zealand, a toi moko, a mummy and tattooed head belonging to a Maori warrior.

The head was brought from Argentina to the National Museum of Te Papa Tongarewa in New Zealand in 2004. Entering the Ethnographic Museum’s collection in 1910, Toi Moko was received with a funeral two decades earlier by senior members of the Maori community and directors of Te Papa Tongarewa. The man in charge of taking it to New Zealand was the famous archaeologist José Antonio Pérez Colón, whom everybody called “Pepe Pérez” and who was in charge of the Ethnographic Museum. In press reports from 2004 – both in Argentina and New Zealand – Perez Colón said: “They covered the head I carried with a blanket of kiwi feathers and placed it on a platform. They performed funeral processions and sang in their own language. “They welcomed me like a friend.”

Pérez Colón, who died in 2014, wrote an article about that restoration together with Andrea Pecoraro, the current director of the Ethnographic Museum. In an article published in 2004 in the Argentine Society of Anthropology’s Relationships journal, it is explained: “The precursor to the return was in early 2003, on the occasion of a visit to the Museum of Ethnology by Mr. New Zealand’s ambassador to Argentina, Carl Worker, said we want the mummified head back into the hands of the Maori people. Formal proceedings began on 8 April 2003 with a note issued to the New Zealand embassy, ​​requesting the opening of an official procedure for repatriation. A year later, some of us were invited to travel with Toi Moko to leave it in the hands of Te Papa Tongarewa, a group responsible for recovering Maori human remains found outside New Zealand.

The Maoris arrived in New Zealand over a thousand years ago. Their green culture was discovered by Europeans in 1769 when English explorer James Cook arrived in Tahiti and explored the coast of New Zealand. It was then that naturalist Joseph Banks reported the first description of toi moko, known as Maori facial tattoos. Etched into the skin with a very painful technique, the “tatú” – as the British called them – was shared by Polynesians and spread all over the body. But still The Maori, a warrior people, limited it to the face, and men only. With scrolls and subtly different designs, doi moko became each person’s identity as they reflected each person’s lineage and the social hierarchy they were inserted into. When a leader died, his head was embalmed and passed down from generation to generation. But also The doi moko of an enemy slain in battle is kept to insult him. These heads became objects of interest to European collectors and museums from the 18th century onwards, fueling a trade that led to abuse and counterfeiting. Due to the greed of scientific institutions and collectors, Maori sacrificed their inferior counterparts and tattooed them at postmortem to sell toi moko. This led the British colonial government to pass a law prohibiting its smuggling in 1831, although the practice continued for some time.

In 1905, the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters established the Museum of Ethnography to promote the teaching and dissemination of American prehistory and ethnology. It also had to fulfill the functions of a university research and training institution. But it also became a center for the education of the common people. Juan Bautista Ambrosetti was appointed director in recognition of his work in promoting the creation of the museum, and also, for his background as a researcher and professor: at the time he was already an alternate professor of American archeology at the faculty. Philosophy and Letters of UBA.

In that article, published 20 years ago, Colon and Pecoraro mention William Oldman, who offered to sell ethnographic specimens from Oceania and North America through illustrated catalogs. The authors explained how the mummy and the tattooed head came to the Ethnographic Museum: “In 1910, one of Oldman’s catalogs came into Ambrosetti’s hands listing the pieces, their prices, and sometimes a brief description and drawing. But when the strict budget of the Ethnographic Museum was devoted almost entirely to defraying the costs of archaeological research, we consider it nothing short of delusion to think of entering the English art market. Faced with such a situation, the only option that arose was to turn to someone with financial stability and an interest in advancing knowledge and culture. The man who met all these conditions was Don Antonio Devoto, an Italian businessman who owned fields in the Pampas and exported frozen meats from his Argentine refrigerator. Ambrosetti approached him and asked for his ‘patriotic assistance in carrying on a university institution of high culture,’ asking him to buy a lot of pieces from Oceania that Oldman had given him; In exchange, he proposed that the collection should bear his name. Devoto accepted the order and offered to make the purchase while he was traveling to Europe. The collection, made up of 278 objects from Polynesia and Australia, was exhibited during the sessions of the XVII International Congress of Americans with a bronze plaque identified as the Antonio Devodo Collection. The general public, researchers and journalists viewed it with great interest: the magazine Caras y Caretas devoted an article, richly illustrated with photographs, to quote one case. And they added: ”The mummified head was found in the Ethnographic Museum under No. 11961 with a transcription of the legend from Oldman’s list: ‘Preserved head of a Maori chief, beautiful moko green, these heads are now very rare.’ Ear ornament made of tiger shark tooth attached with red wax. Part of the skull is shaved. It is accompanied by a painting by Mogo. New Zealand”.

The return of Doi Mogo in Argentina is part of a global movement to return human remains to their original communities. In recent decades, representatives of indigenous peoples have demanded the return of the bodies of their ancestors, which can be found in scientific collections in museums around the world. In New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa led these efforts, and between 1985 and 2023 he returned around 850 Maori remains, including many toi moko. These remains come from countries like England, Germany, USA, Wales, Scotland and Australia. When Pérez Colón recalled Doi Mogo 20 years ago, he said: “I can’t treat a toi moko as a museum object: it’s someone’s ancestor. I’m not exhibiting remains, but a form of tradition and interpretation of the past.