House gable mask

wheku koruru

After years of negotiations between various Māori institutions and the Austrian Federal Government, the remains of Waikato dignitary Tupahau were returned from our museum to New Zealand in 1985. The wooden mask depicting the sea monster Parata is an “object of exchange” for the repatriation of the mummy. This “diplomatic act” profoundly discomfited both the Māori and the Austrian museum staff. The slanted eyes with inlays of Haliotis sea snail shell lend the wooden mask a truly furious expression.