Aboriginal remains to be returned after more than 170 years in university collection

“It would be unacceptable for these ancestral remains to be used for research, teaching or exhibitions purposes:” A Tasmanian Aboriginal murder victim’s skull held in Scotland for 170 years is coming home.

Neil Curtis head of university collections University of Aberdeen. The University of Aberdeen in Scotland contacted the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in 2019, which led to the proposal to return the remains of a young Tasmanian Aboriginal man. The Tasmanian Aboriginal 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. Picture: University of Aberdeen

The skull of a young Tasmanian Aboriginal man that has been at a Scotland university for more than 170 years will be repatriated and laid to rest “at last”.

The University of Aberdeen is returning the remains to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in a ceremony this Friday.

The TAC is recognised by both the Australian and international governments as the only appropriate organisation to which all repatriated Tasmanian Aboriginal skeletal remains and cultural property are returned.

Andry Sculthorpe from the TAC 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”.

Andry Sculthorpe from Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre at Risdon Cove working with WWF to re-wild Lungtalanana. Picture: Caroline Tan

“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.”

The skull has been in the University of Aberdeen collection since the 1850s, and was acquired after the death of William MacGillivray a Regius Professor of Natural History in Marischal College, who had the skull in his collection.

William MacGillivray, Picture: the University of Aberdeen

Details of how the skull was acquired are limited and they were described as “Native of Van Diemen’s Land, who was shot on the Shannon River”.

The TAC considers that “there can be no doubt that this skull was removed from the man shot at the Shannon River in order to service (the) trade in Aboriginal body parts”.

“The decapitation was most likely performed by one of the killers, stockkeepers, property owners or lessees involved in or associated with the man’s murder.”

The skull was then kept as part of the university’s comparative anatomy collection, before being transferred to the human culture collection in the early 2000s.

Founded in 1495 and completed early in the 16th Century, the University of Aberdeen was the 3rd in Scotland and the 5th in the United Kingdom. Picture: istock

It 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.

Head of University Collections at the University of Aberdeen Neil Curtis 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,” Mr Curtis said.

Originally published as Aboriginal remains to be returned after more than 170 years in university collection