NI museums staff return human remains to Hawaii

 

National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) has held a ceremony to return human remains and other sacred objects to Hawaii.

They were returned to representatives from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs at Belfast's Ulster Museum.

The museum had recently identified some items stolen from other countries or connected to the slave trade among its collections.

Some are on display in an exhibition called Inclusive Global Histories.

 

 

National Museums NI has also recently begun a project to trace how it obtained around 4,500 items collected from Asia, Africa, America and Oceania in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Some other museums in the UK are also examining potential links to the slave trade and have received requests for items to be returned from Australia, Asia and South America  

'Remains of our ancestors'

On Wednesday, the Surgeons Museum in Edinburgh held a ceremony to hand back a human skull to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Representatives from the Office then travelled to Belfast, where National Museums NI held a ceremony at the Ulster Museum to return two separate human remains including a skull, and five sacred objects.

The sacred objects include a bowl, a fan, a bracelet and two necklaces.

Mana Kaleilani Caceres was one of four representatives from Hawaii who travelled to Belfast, and he told BBC News NI that the repatriation was highly significant.  

"We're getting back sacred items and the remains of our ancestors that were taken from us a long time ago," he said.

"So, me and the team are able to stand in the shoes of our ancestors and re-establish that bond that was severed when they were taken away.

"We lost a lot of our population due to diseases when foreigners first came to our shores and ever since then it's been a lot of uphill battles.

"Sacred objects were stolen, the remains of our ancestors were stolen, so we are here to honour our people and to fix that relationship with our ancestors."

'Taken without consent'

The Chief Executive of National Museums NI Kathryn Thompson said that the remains and objects in its collections were taken from Hawaii in the mid-19th century.

"These were taken from burial caves and they were taken without consent," she told BBC News NI.  

"So we don't believe it's legitimate for us to continue to hold these objects.

"We've a lot to learn from indigenous communities both locally and globally and we want to learn more about the objects that we have in our collection.

"It is an official repatriation ceremony that we're having and a formal procedure," she added.

A representative from the United States Embassy in London was also present at the repatriation   

 

ceremony.    

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-61341825