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The feather is registered as a taonga tūturu under a system to protect Maori made objects.

Ngāi Tahu, one of the Maori tribes that inhabits New Zealand's South Island consider the takahe as taonga - a treasure that should be protected.

Since 2010, feathers shed by kiwi at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., have been collected and sent back to New Zealand as “taonga,” the Maori word for treasure.

They said she was a national treasure, or “taonga” in Indigenous ����ǰ���.

During condolences in Parliament on Tuesday, Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the British Empire was built on stolen “whenua” and stolen “taonga,” using the Maori words for land and treasure.