INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightAlamyImage caption
About 2,000 specimens at the Pitt Rivers Museum are of human remains
Treasures seized during Britain's colonial past are kept in museums across the country
But as times change, how do such institutions deal with the sensitive issue of the human remains in their collectionsIn Oxford, the Pitt
Rivers Museum - founded with the collection of a Victorian general, Augustus Pitt Rivers - holds about 2,000 such specimens
These body parts were brought back to Britain from across its empire, with little concern for the people from whom they'd been plundered
The Pitt Rivers is one of several British institutions that are under pressure to re-evaluate the many colonial prizes in their
collections."We can't undo history but we can be a part of the process of healing," says Laura van Broekhoven, director of the museum.She
says the process is about having an "open conversation" with those affected.Image copyrightAlamyImage caption
The museum
was founded with the collection of Victorian general Augustus Pitt Rivers
Since the passing of the Human Tissues Act 2004,
legislation that relaxed the rules regarding the moving of body parts, the Pitt Rivers has returned 22 such objects.It's hardly a flood of
returns to the former colonies, but it's a start.The Pitt Rivers is currently negotiating the return of aboriginal human remains to
Australia, and in May 2017 Maori remains were handed over to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.In some cases these items first
came to the UK because of adventurers who had connections to the University of Oxford."We've a lot of family connections between the
university and the people of New Zealand that date back to the first contact between the Maori and British voyagers," Dr van Broekhoven
"When the first British ships went to the area there were people from Oxford - wealthy naturalists who bought themselves a place on the ship
that Captain Cook was navigating - and they brought objects here."She says the Maori community showed "persistence and dedication" in
getting them back.Image copyrightTe Papa Image caption
Special ceremonies take place when remains are returned to New
Zealand
Image copyrightTe Papa Image caption
Repatriations enable the "reconciliation of past wrongs and
misdeeds"
Te Herekiekie Herewini, who works at Te Papa, has been described as the country's Indiana Jones of
repatriations.His mission is to return remains to their spiritual homeland "as a means of ensuring the ancestors may be comforted and
embraced by their loved ones"
He says: "Maori and Moriori ancestral remains were taken without the permission of their family, and so the repatriation process allows for
reconciliation of past wrongs and misdeeds associated with the arrival of Europeans into the South Pacific."The museum has claimed back
about 500 skeletal remains from various institutions since 2003, and the handover last year from Oxford included seven Toi moko, which are
mummified, tattooed heads of Maori origin.In May 2017 they were formally welcomed home by tribal representatives and government officials,
and placed in a sacred repository, known as a Wahi Tapu.The are only open only to tribal representatives with a direct genealogical
And what's happened to some of the Pitt Rivers' remains has been replicated elsewhere
The British Museum, which has more than 6,000 human remains in its collections, has repatriated at least 18 objects to Tasmania and New
Zealand since 2004.Human remains in the Pitt Rivers collection2,000 individual objects300 skulls, or parts of skulls600 human bones, or
artefacts incorporating them700 specimens of human hair, or artefacts using itAshley Jackson, professor of Imperial and military history at
King's College, believes if the situation was reversed, there would be strong feelings in the UK
"If a museum in Beijing or Harare had the remains or funeral regalia of an important king or archbishop there'd be an enormous movement to
try and get them back here," he says.The current predicament is down to attitudes in the colonial period being extremely different, he
says."Many people had an extraordinarily proprietorial view of the wider world, representing what many would've seen as a higher
civilisation discovering, claiming, archiving, and bringing things back to Britain."Image copyrightPitt RiversImage caption
Maasai representatives from Tanzania and Kenya have visited the Pitt Rivers
Image copyrightPitt RiversImage caption
They aided curators in making sure artefacts on display had the correct descriptions
He adds: "There must be
an argument for a very human approach to understanding why certain communities, groups or national institutions want to have these back
"They want to reclaim a history we had in many ways appropriated, and pronounced upon, and written about in a way that might not have
reflected the truth."But for Dr Tiffany Jenkins, author of Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections: The Crisis of Cultural Authority,
there now seems to be a "confusion in terms of what a museum's purpose is"."Once it gets involved in community work, it's doing something
slightly different, and I think in a way betraying its knowledge-seeking and educative purpose," she says
"I'm uncomfortable when they abandon that because I think this has come out of a search for something new to do to make them relevant in the
"It moralises and apologises rather than investigates and opens it up the beautiful thing about knowledge and understanding the past is that
it should be open to everybody."Origins of human remains at the Pitt RiversAsia - 500 Europe - 400Oceania - 400 Africa - 300North America -
150Australia - 100South America - 75Other/unknown - 50Among the Pitt Rivers' most popular exhibits are the "shrunken heads"
The 10 tsantsas were brought back from the Upper Amazon by British explorers in the late 19th Century, and now reside in a case called
"Treatment of Dead Enemies".To make a tsantsa the skin was removed, boiled and dried, the eyes and mouth closed with cotton string, the face
blackened with dye, and the head strung on a cord.These trophies were created by the tribesmen who took their enemies' heads to prove their
courage and avenge a death
We can't show a photograph of them because the museum considers them "sensitive materials" - to their descendants they are sacred
objects.Image caption
At one point demand in the West was so high that tsantsas were made from people who had died of
natural causes
But that doesn't necessarily mean they shouldn't be on display at the museum, explains Dr van Broekhoven
She says she has spoken to descendants of the Amazonian tribespeople, who had "no problem whatsoever" with the collections."They're actually
very glad to see them on display," she says."They see that as a representation of their cultures and ambassadors for their cultures here."So
in that sense I don't necessarily see the vaults opening and emptying as the only possible outcome of this process."Image
copyrightAlamyImage caption
The museum's director says most of the museum's collections are uncontroversial
A link-up with another community took place in November, when Maasai representatives from Tanzania and Kenya visited the museum.They
worked with curators to make sure exhibits were correctly labelled and that they represented their culture fairly.Dr van Broekhoven believes
entering into the sprit of conversation with interested parties is important
"I can't see how we would otherwise progress, especially as Oxford is a very international city," she says
Despite its complicated past, Dr van Broekhoven insists the museum can still "speak about our common humanity"."There's many different ways
of knowing and being," she says
"There's so much to learn from each other, and understand from each other."
