De l’adieu aux choses au retour des ancêtres. La remise par la France des têtes māori à la Nouvelle-Zélande

Abstract

Can we consider māori mummified tattooed heads dating from the eighteenth century as “things”? How museum objects are transformed in ancestral remains? Mélanie Roustan follows the physical and symbolic trajectory of the “māori heads” (toi moko) given to New Zealand after being kept for several centuries in the collections of museums in France. Taking as anchor the restitution ceremony held January 23, 2012 at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, and by tracing the trajectory of French toi moko, the author addresses this “reversal of things” from an anthropological point of view on material culture: the change in their legal status, the ritual of their departure, as a start to the first time a cultural, social and political takeover. The movement in space of these mummified tattooed heads is also a paradigm shift: from the universalist rhetoric of heritage to the affirmation of aboriginal rights. But the involvement of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa questions the scope of this return as “reversal”.