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German-Australian Research on a Difficult Legacy: Colonial Collections of Indigenous Human Remains in German Museums and Collections
Citation
Turnbull, P, German-Australian Research on a Difficult Legacy: Colonial Collections of Indigenous Human Remains in German Museums and Collections, German-Australian Encounters and Cultural Transfers: Global Dynamics in Transnational Lands, Springer Singapore, B Nickl, I Herrschner, EM Goździak (ed), Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. ISBN 978-981-10-6598-9 (In Press) [Research Book Chapter]
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Abstract
In recent years, curators of German ethnological and university anatomical museums have begun
attempting to resolve the ethical and practical challenges arising from their possession of human remains
of Indigenous peoples collected in spheres of colonial ambition during the long nineteenth century. Efforts
to assess whether past injustices warrant the return of these remains to their country of origin for reburial
has been prompted by Indigenous communities with ancestral ties to these relics requesting their
repatriation. In the German context, the largest collections of remains are those of the Indigenous peoples
of present day Namibia. However, a number of museums have also found themselves encountering repatriation requests from Indigenous Australian communities. This chapter looks
at how the German museum world’s efforts to resolve this difficult legacy has led to collaboration between
leading German and Australian museum personnel and scholars with expertise in the history of colonial era
collecting of human remains and their repatriation. As the chapter explains, to date this collaboration has
largely focused on critically assessing guidelines recommended by the Deutscher Museumsbund , or
German Museums Association in late 2003 to its member institutions. Working together, German and
Australian experts have drawn attention to how these guidelines—which reflect the experience of German
museums dealing with human remains acquired during the Nazi era—have their strengths, but still
problematically reflect Eurocentric assumptions about the nature of death, and the relations of the dead to
the living.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Research Book Chapter |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Repatriation Indigenous human remains |
| Research Division: | Philosophy and Religious Studies |
| Research Group: | History and Philosophy of Specific Fields |
| Research Field: | History and Philosophy of Specific Fields not elsewhere classified |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society |
| Author: | Turnbull, P (Professor Paul Turnbull) |
| ID Code: | 121066 |
| Year Published: | In Press |
| Funding Support: | Australian Research Council (LP130100131) |
| Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
| Deposited On: | 2017-09-08 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-09-08 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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