Weird NZ history fact for you:

When British officials first described the boundaries of NZ they accidentally set the Northern boundary at 34 degrees North (approximately level with Tokyo). /🧵 Governor George Grey seized on this mistake in the 1850s to try and block the French from seizing control of Vanuatu and New Caledonia, insisting they were already British territory. /2

In the blacked out background of this image are 35 preserved Māori heads (mokomokai). It’s a collection put together by this man, Horatio Gordon Robley - a fascinating and sometimes disturbing person who I’ve spent the last few months researching. A thread 1/ It’s hard to look at a photo of a white dude holding a Māori club, sitting in front of a wall of Māori heads and see anything other than a monster...

But there’s a twist in this story. “He really became a friend of the Māori” says Haami Piripi, a mokomokai expert. 2/