|
Members of The Tainui Waka Alliance tribe welcome the return of 20 mummified tattooed Maori heads (Toi Moko) that were taken to Europe in the 1700s and 1800s, during a ceremony at Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, on January 27, 2012. The tattooed heads were handed over by French officials at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris after a four-year political struggle. The Maori heads were once warriors that tattooed their faces with elaborate geometric designs to show their rank and were an object of fascination for European explorers who collected and traded them from the 18th century onwards. (Photo by Marty Melville/AFP)
|
