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Aborigine skulls to be taken home | Aborigine skulls to be taken home |
(1 day later) | |
A delegation of Aboriginal people from Australia has arrived in Edinburgh to take home human remains. | |
The six skulls and a human ear bone are in collections belonging to the National Museums of Scotland and Edinburgh University. | |
Four members of the Ngarrindjeri people made the trip to take home their ancestor's remains. | |
Aboriginal people and the Australian Government have fought to repatriate remains from museum collections. | Aboriginal people and the Australian Government have fought to repatriate remains from museum collections. |
On Monday morning, the Ngarrindjeri people burned eucalyptus leaves in front of the university's McEwan Hall in a "smoking ceremony". | |
The ritual marked the completion of a decade-long process during which remains held in the university's collection have been returned. | |
'Times change' | 'Times change' |
The delegation is in Edinburgh for the handover of the last piece of human remains still held at the university - a fragment of bone from a woman's ear. | |
It later moved on to the Museum of Scotland to collect six human skulls, also dating back to the 19th century. | |
The remains were acquired by the university more than 100 years ago, when Australia was a British colony. | |
Dr John Scally, director of the University of Edinburgh collections, said the handover completed an important process. | |
"Over the past decade we have been returning human remains to the Aboriginal cultures which they came from," he added. | |
"Times have changed dramatically since we were given these remains, but we are very happy that through returning them we are able to build a new relationship with the indigenous people of Australia." | "Times have changed dramatically since we were given these remains, but we are very happy that through returning them we are able to build a new relationship with the indigenous people of Australia." |
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