TASMANIAN ancestral remains will be returned home after being held at the University of Aberdeen collections since the 1850s.
The university contacted the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in 2019, which led to a proposal to return the remains of a young man, this was the approved by the University’s governing body court in 2020.
The centre is now in a position to take the remains back to Tasmania where they will be laid to rest in a traditional ceremony conducted by Aboriginal people.
Information on how the remains were acquired by the university is limited, with records listing only that it was part of the collection of William MacGillivray, regius professor of natural history in Marischal College.
After he died in 1852, the collection was purchased by the university and in the sale catalogue it was described as “Native of Van Diemen’s Land, who was shot on the Shannon River”, however there is no record to indicating how the skull was acquired by MacGillivray.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, a non-profit community-based organisation, believes this skull was removed from the man shot at the Shannon River to service trade in Aboriginal body parts.
The Big River tribe to which he belonged is one of the many original tribes entirely wiped out and for which there are no surviving direct descendants so it is unlikely that the identity of the man will ever be known.
Andry Sculthorpe of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre said: “Aboriginal people feel the enormous responsibility of restoring to our own country both the physical remains, and through them, the spirits of our ancestral dead.
“This is a record of racist attitudes to the study of humanity, including human remains acquired by grave robbing and other immoral activity; in this case, murder.
“We applaud the institutions that have the courage to let go of their perceptions of intellectual supremacy, embrace their own humanity and do what is right by the people who are most impacted by the atrocities they have inflicted in the past.
“This young man’s murder will not be forgotten and we will bring him home to rest at last.”
After acquisition by the university, the skull was kept as part of the comparative anatomy collection, before being transferred to the human culture collection in the early 2000s.
The skull was used in medical education in the 19th and early 20th centuries but the collection is no longer used for teaching and there is no current or intended research associated with it.
Neil Curtis, head of university collections at the University of Aberdeen, said: “Given the violence and racism that led to their acquisition, it would be unacceptable for these ancestral remains to be used for research, teaching or exhibitions purposes.
“We are pleased that the remains of this young man can now be handed over to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for appropriate burial in his homeland.”
