{"id":224012,"date":"2026-01-08T22:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/224012\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:59:08","slug":"call-for-te-papa-to-repatriate-kauri-bust-of-ngati-porou-chief-who-signed-the-treaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/224012\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Te Papa to repatriate kauri bust of Ngati Porou chief who signed the Treaty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bust belongs to English antiques dealer Peter Petrou.<\/p>\n

Jackson, who has whakapapa to Ngati Porou and Maniapoto, said far too many New Zealand treasures were in the hands of offshore collectors and museums and made mention of this when he won his 2024 Oxford University debate about British Museums, highlighting the imperialist acquisition of artefacts, especially M\u0101ori mokomokai.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a rule these taonga [treasures] should be repatriated,\u201d Jackson told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur culture and our taonga have for years been lost and stolen by museums and dealers around the world, with little coming back to our people.<\/p>\n

\"WillieWillie Jackson was the first M\u0101ori person to be invited to the Oxford University to take part in the debate. Photo \/ Whakaata Maori<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, there was a process that these people were part of and due respect was shown to the wh\u0101nau and our iwi of Ngati Porou in terms of this sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational repatriation laws can be so complex and difficult for indigenous people so if Te Papa could help, that would be better for everyone. This kaupapa is very important because those taonga are an incredible part of the history of our people and this country and was one of the reasons why I called for the repatriation of taonga from the British museums in my Oxford speech two years ago. The right process needs to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Te Papa said they did not comment on specific auctions, but hoped the sellers would make contact with the iwi themselves.<\/p>\n

Chief Tamati Tamaiwhakanehua (also known as Tamati Waka Ama Whaakahua Porourangi) was a high-ranking M\u0101ori chief of the Ng\u0101ti Porou.<\/p>\n

He was a key figure in the early interactions between M\u0101ori and Europeans. <\/p>\n

\"NgatiNgati Porou Maori chief, Tamati Tamaiwhakanehua and his granddaughter Princess Te Rangi Pai, aka Fanny Howie, the writer of the popular New Zealand lullaby ‘Hine E Hine’.<\/p>\n

His face is remembered through a series of life-size kauri gum bust carvings in which he is shown wearing a topknot (tini), moko (tattoo), earplugs and stylised mana dress made of him in the 1840s.<\/p>\n

His granddaughter was the singer and composer Fanny Howie (Te Rangi Pai), writer of the popular lullaby Hine E Hine – used as the theme for TVNZ\u2019s Goodnight Kiwi.<\/p>\n

\"FannyFanny Rose Howie, known as Princess Te Rangi Pai. Photo \/ National Library of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The bust of the Ngati Porou chief comes as Petrou, who has been more than 50 years in the antiques trade, moves to France.<\/p>\n

His Outward Bound auction, to be held at Sworders next month, will see objects chosen over \u201ca lifetime of looking, thinking, feeling \u2026 and matchmaking” by Petrou go under the hammer.<\/p>\n

Joseph Los\u2019e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa M\u0101ori Editor. Los\u2019e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and before joining NZME worked for urban M\u0101ori organisation Wh\u0101nau Waipareira.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bust belongs to English antiques dealer Peter Petrou. Jackson, who has whakapapa to Ngati Porou and Maniapoto,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1978,1972,29950,3043,3937,2082,22220,42921,1619,2720,111,43,139,134127,69,1118,36239,134128,134126,31706,134130,134129,8690,223,61,38961,27704,1299],"class_list":["post-224012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auction","tag-block","tag-bust","tag-call","tag-chief","tag-for","tag-going","tag-kauri","tag-london","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-ngati","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-papa","tag-porou","tag-repatriate","tag-signed","tag-tamaiwhakanehua","tag-tamati","tag-te","tag-the","tag-to","tag-treaty","tag-waitangi","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}