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Burial ceremony at Wairau Bar - Source: ONE News -
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The remains of what are thought to be some of the country's first people have found their final resting place.
The bones were disinterred in the 1940s and 50s by archaeologists and local iwi in Marlborough have fought a long battle for the return of their tupuna (ancestors).
"We've grown up with the sense of whakama or embarrassment that our ancestors were stolen from under our noses and there's three generations of us that have struggled with that" says Richard Bradley of Rangitane.
On Thursday in an emotional service in Wairau Bar near Blenheim, they were reburied.
The rangitane women wore parekawakawa (garlands) of weeping willow leaf to show their sorrow as the remains were transported to the site in specially made caskets.
They were handed over by the Canterbury Museum to relieved local iwi on Tuesday.
"I think we need to remember that our people were unceremoniously ripped out of the ground and taken away. But we should also remember that they've been given back and we've been able to put them back where they came from" Jeffrey Hynes of Rangitane.
The tupuna are being buried at three different sites on the Wairau Bar as close as possible to where they originally came from without disturbing the sites again.
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