After more than 170 years at a Scottish university, the remains of a young Aboriginal man, who was killed on his traditional land, have finally returned home. The skull of the unknown man, taken from Tasmania in the 1830s and held by the University of Aberdeen since the early 1850s, is believed to be part of the Big River tribe. He was shot at Shannon River in Tasmania’s Central Highlands.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Andry Sculthorpe and elder Jeanette James brought the remains back to Hobart on Thursday. They also returned a shell necklace, made by a woman on a Bass Strait island in the 1880s, from the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum.
The centre, which had fought for the necklace’s return since 1994, says this is the first overseas return of a Tasmanian cultural item in 27 years. The repatriation is a crucial moment for their community, acknowledging past injustices and allowing the ancestor’s spirit to be set free.
The University of Aberdeen contacted the centre in 2019 and proposed returning the remains. The skull, used for teaching in the 19th and early 20th centuries, was handed over in a ceremony in Scotland earlier this March. Neil Curtis, the University of Aberdeen’s head of collections, stated that they are pleased the remains can now be buried in the homeland.
The necklace is 148cm long and features elenchus or maireener shells found off the coast of Tasmania. Although requests from the centre for the necklace’s return were rejected in 1995 and 2002, the centre has thanked both universities and aims to continue repatriating other remains and cultural items from UK institutions.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/27/aboriginal-man-remains-returned-tasmania-from-university-of-aberdeen
