Looting and Theft in Colonial-Era Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Art crime occurs across all times and cultures, and in the indigenous worlds this is no different. This chapter seeks to present new research on the way in which art crime, and responses to it, occurred specifically in Maori culture in New Zealand over the past 1000 years. It begins by looking through oral histories at art crime, most notably theft, in Hawaiki, our Pacific homeland, and traces various episodes of this from the period 1200-1800. Indigenous responses to this are identified, enacted by the community and led by the chief through the concept of the taua (war party), such as the taua muru (plundering party). With the arrival of Europeans from the late 18th century, the nature of art crime changed to encompass looting during times of armed conflict specifically in the 1820s and 1860s, as well as illicit antiquities. During the 20th century forgery became an issue driven by a strong interest for Maori art by European-based collectors. In the 1960s there became an acute awareness by Maori of a loss of their cultural heritage as part of their calls for political recognition of historical injustices. Over the past 30 years this has resulted in redress by the New Zealand Government through the repatriation of a range of Taonga Tuku Iho (treasures handed down through the ancestors), which is set to only increase as the numbers of claims by iwi (tribal groups) are settled through the Waitangi Tribunal (a group of Crown and Maori representatives). Today Maori look forward to an exciting future re-uniting with their past through ongoing and meaningful relationships with their returned Taonga as well as with museums and other sites that continue to hold major collections of them, both here and overseas.