Māori ancestral remains and mummified heads returned to New Zealand from Germany

A ceremony to hand over Māori and Moriori artefacts held at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Photograph: Leif Piechowski/Leif Piechowski / Lichtgut Stuttgart.

Māori and Moriori tribes will today welcome home the human remains and tattooed, mummified heads of 95 of their ancestors, which were once traded and sought after by overseas collectors.

The ancestral remains, which included six toi moko (tattooed heads), were returned to New Zealand on Wednesday from where they had been held in six museums and institutions across Germany.