Behind the Headlines | Returning Remains: Context, Consent, and Colonialism

Recorded February 21, 2023 Global conversations centred on
custodianship and care of historic human remains provide the focus
for the Trinity Long Room Hub’s latest Behind the Headlines
discussion, which highlights the complexities and tensions
surrounding the retention or reburial of human remains. As many
international news sites have recently reported, Trinity College
Dublin is currently working with inhabitants of Inishbofin Island
to address the potential return of remains taken from the island in
1890 and stored for more than a century on campus. In this panel
chaired by Dr Ciaran O'Neill from Trinity’s School of Histories and
Humanities, we hear from Dr Olof Ljungström, the Head of Department
at the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm); Peggy King Jorde, the
activist behind New York City's African Burial Ground; Prof Samuel
Redman, author of Bone Rooms (2016); and Evi Numen, the Curator for
the Old Anatomy Museum at Trinity College Dublin. They hope to
situate this case in a broader philosophical, moral, and cultural
context, and to learn from four experts who will reflect on their
own experience of negotiating questions of repatriation in the
museum and university sectors. Learn more at:
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/