On Monday, the natural history museum of Rouen, France, returned a tattooed warrior's head to the Maori people of New Zealand. There are about 20 such heads, known as toi moko, in museums throughout France, and following Rouen's example, they all will be restored to the Maori, who have been seeking the restitution of all their people's human remains held in collections around the world for almost 20 years.

Te Papa Tongarewa, the Maori national museum in Wellington, New Zealand, first approached the Rouen museum about its toi moko in 2007, and the museum quickly decided that the right course of action would be to return the head. However, the French culture ministry feared that this would set a precedent for human remains held in other French museums and opposed the restitution. A senator from Rouen then co-sponsored a bill ordering the return of all Maori heads in France, which passed in 2010.

The New Zealanders will conduct genetic research to try to identify which Maori tribe the dead warrior belonged to. According to Rouen museum director Sébastien Minchin, "the descendants of this people will be able to bury his remains according to their traditions or ask the museum to take care of them in a specific sacred place," Libération reports.

These heads, whose remarkable tattoos symbolized a warrior's place in the Maori hierarchy, were first collected by Captain Cook in 1770. England, which was the most common destination for toi moko, outlawed the morbid trade in 1831, but they continued to appear on the black market throughout the 19th century. The head at the Rouen museum entered its collection in 1875 and was exhibited there until 1996.

Three toi moko and five koiwi tangata (skeletal remains) are being returned at the same time from institutions in Sweden, Germany, and Norway, the Te Papa Tongarewa museum said in a statement. But Le Monde reports that at Monday's ceremony in Rouen, Te Papa Tongarewa co-director Herekiekie Herewini made a clear distinction between an object and an ancestor. To this, co-director Michelle Hippolite added that the museum would not ask for the return of the buried bodies of the Maori soldiers who fought alongside the Allies in the Second World War. "They knew where they were going, but not the ancestors."