This project investigates the global commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. It will employ a multi-disciplinary approach involving history, economic anthropology, economic history, and data science. The project will generate new knowledge about the 19th century global marketplace in Australian Indigenous human remains, and will reveal whether and how these are involved in the trade’s modern manifestations from 1950 tothe present. The project will uncover an unknown history, assist repatriation practice, provide information to help reduce the modern trade, and contribute to truth-telling as a precondition of healing and reconciliation.

Team: Cressida Fforde, Paul Turnbull, Richi Nayak, Paul Tapsell, Michael Pickering, Mark Thomas, C Timothy McKeown, Amber Aranui, Honor Keeler, Gavan McCarthy