Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

VenetiaMacGyver t1_j4cue6h wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in ‘When something like this comes up where we’re both excited, but also that sorrowful that we lost so much.’ — A Māori tribe in New Zealand is calling for the return of treasured artefacts listed for sale by the auction house Sotheby’s by marketrent

I had thought that genocide had happened hundreds of years before, but your comment made me look it up and it apparently happened in the 1830s, so that definitely brings a lot of skepticism rightfully into play.

But, a few things:

  1. The main object discussed in the article is a war club; the Moriori were (sadly, for them) pacifists.

  2. If it was made originally by a Maori, it doesn't matter what their ancestors did to whom. Does it matter that ancient Egyptians slaughtered Nubians when discussing Britain holding ancient Egyptian artifacts?

  3. There are NZ provisions for returning lost artifacts to the remaining surviving Moriori people already, too. They're distributed differently.

The suckiest part is that the genocide was so recent, but people have been slaughtering each other since there have been people, so it really shouldn't invalidate ownership of all objects of any group's cultural history.

8