The Return of the Poutokomanawa

This video shows us the return of a Maori poutokomanawa, a carved figure used as a post within a Maori meeting house (wharenui), M.0069. Our Maori ancestor had been loaned to the Horniman Museum where he had been lovingly displayed with body adornments made by visual artist and poet, Samoan-New Zealander Rosanna Raymond as part of The Body Adorned exhibition. This film, made very informally on an iPhone, shows Raymond, with representatives from Ngati Ranana (The London Tribe) facilitating a warming ceremony to welcome the pou back into the Ethnography Collections, to thank him for his work as a cultural ambassador and put him back to rest in the collection. The Horniman Museum also blogged about the Pou’s return, and reproduce Raymond’s poem, dedicated to the poutokomanawa on their blog.