Several Maori ancestral remains have been welcomed home at an emotional ceremony at the national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington.
Eight toi moko, or preserved heads, and five koiwi tangata, or skeletal remains, were returned from institutions in England, Guernsey and Ireland on Thursday.
Te Papa's kaihautu (cultural co-leader) Arapata Hakiwai says the initiative to repatriate the Maori human remains came from institutions themselves.
Mr Hakiwai says the University of Birmingham and the Guernsey Museum both acknowledged that it isn't appropriate for them to keep the tattooed Maori heads or the skeletal remains in their collection and contacted Te Papa.
The museum will now find out which iwi they belong to.