Aborigine skulls to be taken home

by infomatique | July 7, 2008 at 11:58 am

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In 2004 The UK government launched a consultation document to consider the repatriation of human remains held in Britain to aboriginal groups and based on the news included below it would appear the the correct decision was eventually made.

Thousands of ancient human parts - from hair samples to whole skeletons - have been collected by UK museums however it was suggested scientists should seek out descendants for permission to hold on to body parts up to 500 years old.

Scientists would like to retain materials - some of them thousands of years old - because of what they can reveal about human origins and evolution, and the spread and development of disease. But to indigenous groups, the collections are an affront to their customs and they claim many of the artefacts were effectively stolen by colonial explorers and hunters.

Aborigine skulls to be taken home
A delegation of Aboriginal people from Australia has arrived in Edinburgh to take home human remains.

The six skulls and a human ear bone are in collections belonging to the National Museums of Scotland and Edinburgh University.

Four members of the Ngarrindjeri people made the trip to take home their ancestor's remains.

Aboriginal people and the Australian Government have fought to repatriate remains from museum collections.

On Monday morning, the Ngarrindjeri people burned eucalyptus leaves in front of the university's McEwan Hall in a "smoking ceremony".

The ritual marked the completion of a decade-long process during which remains held in the university's collection have been returned.