iwi

Halealoha Ayau from the Hawaiian organisation Hui Iwi Kuamo'o thanked the people of Belfast "for the time that they took care of our ancestors".

It is believed that Gordon Augustus Thomson, who travelled from Belfast to Hawaii in 1840, had removed iwi kūpuna from burial caves and donated them to Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society in 1857.

He said they are "elated" that the other missing iwi kupuna have been found after the museum were unable to locate them in 2021.

He also said that "given the 19th Century provenance of the iwi kῡpuna being brought to Belfast and the lack of professional collection management standards at the time," they had been unable to locate three sets of remains in 2022.

"Through our ongoing processes of collections reviews and documentation projects, in alignment with formal professional standards, National Museums NI was able to locate the missing iwi kῡpuna in November 2024."