Human(e) Remains: Articulating Scotland's Colonial Past Through Its Contested Heritage

My project explores the lively properties of North American human remains in Scottish University collections. I argue this contentious heritage is bestowed with significant affective, agentic and pedagogical power. International calls to "decolonise" the museum means that these public institutions are now accountable for their containment of politically controversial material (Jenkins, 2008). Tension exists in their expectation to sensitively deal with this uncomfortable heritage, while simultaneously making their colonial legacies visible to the public.

Specifically, I examine Sir William Turner's phrenological collection in Edinburgh University's Anatomy Museum and a smaller collection of ten "American" skulls at the University of Aberdeen. Collected in the 19th century, anatomists and anthropologists used these skulls to classify racial hierarchies according to physical differences. These skulls are contentious as they exist within a political paradox. Often illicitly acquired, their minimal provenance makes them difficult to link to a specific group. Although these remains are often spiritually meaningful, Scottish institutions will only consider repatriation if kinsmen file an intricately evidenced request. Concerned descendants are caught in this paradox as they cannot make claims if the details concerning these remains are unknown. Addressing the changing remit of the traditional museum alongside such constraints complicates dealing with this heritage.

This project asks how to appropriately and ethically keep and remember these remains. By positioning the skulls as persons or agents, I argue that they are powerful subjects that can transform and affect the individuals and the institutions that surround them. I hypothesise there is pedagogic potential within intimate, "sensuous encounters" with these remains (Harries, 2017: 114). Hence, I examine both what people do with these bones and "what do bones do to people?" (Krmpotich et. al., 2010: 373). I expect that this engagement provokes empathy which enables "transformative learning" (Paris and Mercer, 2002: 401). However, this knowledge production has ethical limitations by intruding in places and things that are not our own. Further, fostering guilt about our colonial past may be unproductive, generating a "passive empathy" which holds no real substance in building reconciliatory relationships (Boler, 1999).

I propose that generating a dialogue about their existence may create a demand for their return. This involves archival research into their biographies to locate their descendants. I will also create the first digital inventory of North American human remains in Scottish University collections. I wish to contact source communities to include their perspectives on reforming the skull's display, asking how their histories could be made visible to the public. I aim to develop spaces for non-academic audiences to understand these legacies. This outreach involves workshops, lectures and interactive exhibits on the collection's history and present-day implications. This outreach may help Scottish publics learn about these pasts and how they affect Indigenous groups in the present.

Therefore, I examine how Scotland's colonial legacies can be confronted constructively. This refers not only to rebuilding relationships with Indigenous groups but also reconnecting Scottish people with their colonial heritage. The skulls provide an opportunity to explore historic and present-day colonial injustice. The project generates urgent conversations about the ethical consequences that surround Scotland's remaining colonial heritage, both on an institutional and individual level. Not only does this raise publicity about their existence but also creates an opportunity to think critically about Scotland's place in the colonial project.