Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Ronika Power, Macquarie University, Australia, ronika.power@mq.edu.au
Melanie Pitkin, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, Australia
Jacinta Carruthers, Macquarie University, Australia
Faten Kamal, The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt
Alice Stevenson, University College London, UK
Alexandra Doubleday, Macquarie University, Australia, alexandra.doubleday@mq.edu.au
Bernardette Mercieca-Spiteri, Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, Malta
Sharon Sultana, National Museum of Archaeology, Heritage Malta, Malta
Jess Thompson, University of Cambridge and National Museum of Scotland, UK
Trish Biers, Duckworth Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK
Human remains derived from archaeological excavations and other practices are held in museums and institutions across the world. Ethical approaches to many aspects of engaging with ancestral and archaeological human remains are at the forefront of academic, professional and public debates, including but not limited to their display, storage, conservation, and repatriation. To date, official guidance from international governing bodies has been limited or absent regarding these engagements in collections contexts. Although well intended, where they do exist some guidelines are vague and subject to interpretation, and many have not included consultation or collaboration with descent communities. This session provides an opportunity for members of descent communities and all ‘communities of implication’ to present research, practice, problems or priorities regarding ethical approaches to ancestral and archaeological human remains in museums and other institutions across the world. The end goal of this session is to share ideas, resources, and better practice strategies regarding museum engagements with this unique and critical aspect of global cultural heritage.
Papers:
Missing Identities: Trade of Human Remains from India to Overseas During Colonial Period
Dr Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, Assoc. Prof., Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India
Dr Fiona Gill, Senior lecturer, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr Denise Donlon, Senior lecturer, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr Marcus Robinson, ATTSU Manager, University of Sydney, Australia
The colonisation of India resulted in the exploitation of many of India’s resources. Many are familiar with the trade in unprocessed commodities: tea, jute, cotton, skins, and hides. Less well-known is the export of human remains from India to Britain and America for use in medical education. Starting in the 1800s, this trade continued officially until 1985, 38 years after independence. Our research, based on an analysis of the human skeletal collections from the University of Sydney, Australia, and the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India, as well as archival research in the United Kingdom, attempts to establish the history of some of the individuals whose remains were sold and exported. Not only do these skeletons represent one individual, but many are comingled, using assorted bones belonging to different individuals. These skeletons have been utilised for many years without any documented record of their acquisition or recognition for their contribution to the advancement of the field. Limited records suggest that they may have been individuals who died anonymously, likely representing the most marginalised members of society, or perhaps people who went missing. This study aims to address some of the ethical issues surrounding this practice.
Truth Telling and Reconciliation: The History and Future of Native American Collections at UC Berkeley
Sabrina Agarwal, Professor and Chair, Dept of Anthropology, and Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Repatriation, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Alexandra Lucas, Director of Repatriation & Coordinator, Government and Community Relations, Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, USA
The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (PAHMA) of the University of California Berkeley, is one of the oldest and largest anthropology museums in the US. The museum accumulated an array of photographs, baskets, sacred belongings, as well as ancestral human remains, taken without consent in violation of Indigenous communities’ spiritual and cultural beliefs. While the museum holds Native American ancestors and sacred belongings from around the US (at its largest approximately 12,000 ancestors), by far the largest percentage are from Californian tribes. Despite the passage of NAGPRA legislation in 1990 and state legislations, little repatriation occurred until recently. This paper will discuss the history and ways that practices of 20th century anthropologists specifically upheld institutional racism and normalised earlier necropolitical projects of land appropriation and erasure. This paper will also discuss the dramatic institutional changes that have occurred at the Hearst Museum that have resulted in the repatriation and return of thousands of ancestors and belongings in the past 5 years, and also some of the unique challenges of applying repatriation laws in the state California. Finally, we will discuss how our repatriation efforts are aiming to build healing, accountability, and collaborative relationships with Tribes that recognise Indigenous sovereignty.
Skeletons in the Closet: The Bioethics of the Use, Curation, and Repatriation of Anatomical Skeletal Legacy Collections in Aotearoa
Dr Jamie Metzger, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Aotearoa New Zealand
Prof. Siân Halcrow, University of Otago, New Zealand
In 2022, reports that schools in Aotearoa (New Zealand) possessed anatomical human skeletons shocked communities across the country. These skeletons were amassed by teaching institutions throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, often under unethical and problematic circumstances by today’s standards. Aotearoa is viewed as a world leader in culturally informed practices regarding the care, management and repatriation of ancestral human remains, however most of these advances have occurred in the culture and heritage space. There is a critical need for the development of new, culturally and ethically grounded frameworks and guidelines for teaching and learning about the human body. The right time to reassess the colonial legacy of historical skeletal anatomical collections held by New Zealand education institutions and explore Māori perspectives on their continued care, management, and potential repatriation. This paper will present a Marsden-funded project co-led by Professor Sian Halcrow (University of Otago) and Dr Jamie Metzger (Takarangi Research). The research will be first comprehensive survey of anatomical skeletal collections in Aotearoa and systematic assessment of stakeholder perspectives on their use and curation. The outcomes will be beneficial to teachers and students, as well as form a case study of an Indigenous-led approach to this global issue.
Repatriation of Kōiwi Tangata Human Remains in Aotearoa New Zealand
Coralie O’Hara, Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand
Dr Amber Aranui, Curator, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Waikato; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
Jamie Metzger, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Aotearoa New Zealand
This paper will consider the repatriation initiatives in Aotearoa New Zealand and how they have evolved over time. The Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), has held a government mandate to repatriate Māori and Moriori tūpuna and karāpuna (ancestors) since 2003. That programme includes domestic repatriation of those tūpuna/karāpuna and others already in Te Papa but does not include repatriation of tūpuna/karāpuna held in other New Zealand museums. This work is done by individual museums with varying resourcing. In recent years those working in repatriation of kōiwi tangata (human remains) in Aotearoa have developed new ways of working. This includes the creation of the New Zealand Repatriation Researchers Network by and for those working in this field, the establishment of the government funded Ngākahu National Domestic Repatriation Programme, and the development of the National Policy on the Repatriation of Kōiwi Tangata and Associated Burial Taonga in Aotearoa New Zealand, which was adopted by our professional body, Museums Aotearoa, in 2021. These changes have made a collegial space for those working in repatriation, enabling a more collaborative and proactive approach to return as well as allowing us to better support each other and receiving communities.
A Sense of What Matters: A Year of Repatriation at the University of Auckland
Leanne Tamaki, Teariki Tuiono, Kapua O’Connor, Caitlin Smith, Judith Littleton, University of Auckland, New Zealand
In the last year, we worked to repatriate human remains, starting in a part of the University of Auckland unused to this responsibility. Our work included the return of Moriori karāpuna, kōiwi tangata (Māori), Australian Aboriginal ancestors, Japanese World War II remains, and teaching skeletons.
Each return and interaction has been different in many ways, from who we have been working with to how the repatriation has come about. While our team was led by our Kaiārahi (indigenous strategic advisors) our process has been grounded in ethical integrity, collaboration, and a deep awareness of what was at stake. These factors have guided the way we worked together and made decisions.
In this presentation we discuss each of these engagements focusing on the questions raised and the solutions found in these cross-cultural encounters, how different each has been, and we reflect on how this process involves having a sense of what matters (which is not the same in every case).
Curation, Constraint, Concern: The Management of Death Heritage in the UK
Trish Biers, PhD, Duckworth Collections, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
This paper discusses the current ethical discourse in the UK around ancient and historic death heritage, i.e. human remains and their curation, burial material culture, repatriation, and associated legislation. Using specific examples from the Duckworth Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, I highlight the complex issues around legacy collections and institutional processes for repatriation work, tradition of care and sovereignty of Community in making decisions around collections, and how ethical protocols can be used in subversive ways, for example, in the sale of human remains internationally. Collections staff are faced with many challenging scenarios as the conversation about the ethics of managing collections that centre around death continually make headlines, quite often with misinformation or misleading interpretation at the forefront. This paper tries to detangle some of this and shares how these issues are being handled in the UK.
The Ethical Complexities of Human Remains in Museums: A Case Study of Innovative Practices Implemented at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Sydney
Melanie Pitkin, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, Australia
Jacinta Carruthers, Macquarie University, Australia
Faten Kamal, The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt
Alice Stevenson, University College London, UK
Ronika Power, Macquarie University, Australia
What constitutes the respectful and dignified care and display of human remains? This talk will explore the latest holistic research undertaken by the Human Remains Research Project (HRRP) at the Chau Chak Wing Museum (CCWM) (University of Sydney) into the ethical care, treatment, interpretation and display of human remains, with a particular focus on ancient Egypt. By considering the perspectives of the dead, their descent communities, museum visitors, researchers and museum professionals, the HRRP is supporting the CCWM to make new and informed decisions around better practices for human remains in its care. This includes the development of a set of culturally specific guidelines which considers the treatment of ancient Egyptian human remains across all platforms of the Museum: not only collections, research, documentation, interpretation and display, but also teaching, education and public programs, media, marketing, merchandising and the web. The talk will share insights from our descent community collaborative research in both Australia and Egypt, and discuss how the Museum is re-considering our label text and associated interpretations to re-frame the narrative around ancient Egyptian mummified human remains and visitor behaviour and understanding in their presence.