The Rouen Museum has just returned a severed Maori head, which has been in its collections for 150 years, to New Zealand’s Te Papa Institute. This film reveals the story of how such heads ended up in European museums, and the Maori people’s efforts to have the head returned. The story has its origins in the worst periods of colonial conquest, and perfectly illustrates the philosophy of relationships between the West and indigenous peoples in the 19th century.
