Natural History Museum to return remains to Australia

Natural History Museum to return remains to Australia

London's Natural History Museum has agreed to return ancestral remains collected in the 19th century to the people of Australia's Torres Strait Islands.

Aboriginal leaders have long campaigned for the Natural History Museum to return the skeletons Photo: AFP/GETTY

5:09PM GMT 10 Mar 2011

The announcement on Thursday followed a year and a half of dialogue involving the museum, islanders and the Australian government.

"This decision has been received with much emotion and is considered as a breakthrough in overseas collecting institutions recognising the importance of laying the spirits of our ancestors' to rest," said Ned David, speaking for the islanders.

The museum said 138 pieces of remains – mainly skulls and jawbones but also including a mummy – would be returned. The museum also is offering a placement to a Torres Strait Islander to work with experts in London to develop scientific and museum skills.

The 274 small islands of the Torres Strait are scattered across 48,000 square kilometres (18,500 square miles) between the northern coast of Australia and Papua New Guinea. About 6,000 people live on the islands, and 40,000 have emigrated to the Australian mainland.

Most of the remains came from a cave on the island of Pulu, a site sacred to the Mabiuag islanders. A missionary instigated the removal of the remains of the cave, and the bones were purchased by a dealer in 1884, the museum said.

Other remains not from the cave were traded by the islanders with officers, crew and naturalists from Naval Survey ships in exchange for metal knives, axes, tobacco and cloth, the museum said.

The mummy, one of only five known to exist, was given to John Douglas during his term as government resident and magistrate in the Torres Strait Islands. Douglas, in turn, donated the mummy to the Natural History Museum in 1884, the museum said.

"We are pleased that through dialogue and mutual respect our team has been able to work closely with the TSI community, demonstrating for the first time in the U.K. a new way of approaching repatriation claims in what has previously been a hugely polarised debate," said Richard Lane, director of science at the museum.
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