Wednesday | March 19, 2025
The skull of an Aboriginal man who is thought to have been killed by colonizers in the early 19th century has been returned for burial in Tasmania from a British university.
The remains of a young man whose identity remains unknown will finally be laid to rest in a ceremonial burial on an Australian island this Friday, according to a statement released by the University of Aberdeen on Wednesday. The burial marks the conclusion of a long and complex process of repatriation, involving years of negotiations and research into the origins of the remains.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, which will oversee the long-overdue burial, was first contacted by the Scottish university in 2019 with a formal proposal to repatriate the remains. After careful consideration and consultation, the proposal was approved the following year, setting in motion the process to return the remains to their ancestral homeland.
Details about how the university originally came into possession of the skull—missing its lower jaw—are limited, the university acknowledged. What is known is that the skull was part of the collection of William MacGillivray, a professor of natural history at Marischal College, which later became part of the modern University of Aberdeen. MacGillivray was known for his extensive collection of natural specimens and human remains, gathered during his career as a naturalist and academic.
When MacGillivray passed away in 1852, the university acquired his entire collection through a formal purchase. A catalog from the sale recorded that the remains were described as those of a “native of Van Diemen’s Land, who was shot on the Shannon River.” Van Diemen’s Land was the colonial name for Tasmania, reflecting the island’s history as a British penal colony during the early 19th century.
Despite this reference, no surviving documentation exists to explain how the skull was originally acquired or the specific circumstances surrounding the young man’s death. The remains were initially housed in the university’s comparative anatomy collection, where they were studied and preserved alongside other human and animal specimens. In the early 2000s, the skull was transferred to the university’s human culture collection, where it remained until the repatriation process began.
The burial represents a significant moment of closure for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, which has long sought the return of ancestral remains held in institutions overseas. The repatriation of the young man’s remains is part of a broader global movement to address the colonial legacy of human remains collected without consent and to restore dignity to Indigenous communities whose cultural heritage was disrupted by colonial practices.
The skull, which was part of the University of Aberdeen’s collection for nearly two centuries, was originally used to teach medicine during the 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, quoted in the university’s statement, there is “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 practice of collecting and trading human remains, particularly those of Indigenous peoples, was widespread during the colonial era, reflecting the deeply rooted racist attitudes of the time. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre highlighted that the decapitation was almost certainly carried out by one of the men involved in the killing—possibly a stock-keeper, property owner, or lessee—immediately after the man’s death. The killing itself is believed to have taken place in the 1820s or 1830s, a period marked by violent conflicts between British settlers and the Aboriginal population of Tasmania, known as the Black War.
While the identity of the young man may never be definitively established, historical records and cultural knowledge suggest that he belonged to the Big River tribe, one of the Aboriginal groups that was completely wiped out during this era of colonization and frontier violence. His remains represent not just the loss of an individual life but the broader destruction of an entire community and its culture.
Andry Sculthorpe, a representative of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, underscored the profound cultural and spiritual significance of repatriation. “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,” he said. Sculthorpe described the acquisition of the skull as part of a broader historical pattern of colonial violence and exploitation: “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.”
Sculthorpe praised institutions like the University of Aberdeen for acknowledging the injustices of the past and taking steps toward reconciliation. “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,” he said. “This young man’s murder will not be forgotten, and we will bring him home to rest at last.”
The University of Aberdeen has a formal procedure for handling repatriation requests for items held in its collections. Previous repatriations have included a Benin bronze, which was returned to Nigeria in 2021. Neil Curtis, the university’s head of museums and special collections, emphasized the importance of returning human remains acquired under violent and unethical circumstances. “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 exhibition purposes,” Curtis said. “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.”
The upcoming burial will serve as a moment of both closure and reflection, as the young man is finally returned to the land of his ancestors. For the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, it represents a symbolic act of healing, acknowledging the historical wrongs inflicted upon their people and taking a step toward restoring cultural dignity and respect.