Three tattooed, mummified Maori heads, as well as other skeletal remains have been handed over by European museums and will be returned to New Zealand this week.
A New Zealand repatriation party has completed a two-week mission in Europe, collecting the remains from Sweden, Germany, Norway and France.
The group, led by Te Papa deputy chief executive Michelle Hippolite, on Monday took part in a ceremony at the Natural History Museum in the French city of Rouen for the return of a shrunken head, known as a toi moko.
The restitution follows a four-year political struggle which ended last year when the French Senate passed legislation allowing the return to New Zealand of all Maori human heads held in France.
Ms Hippolite says French senators who had been advocates for the return of the remains attended the ceremony along with the mayor of Rouen.
