Truth-telling, Ancestral Remains and the Establishment of a National Resting Place in Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACT∞ This article explores the potential for truth-telling and healing created by the recently announced National Resting Place for Indigenous Ancestral Remains in Australia. The return of Indigenous Ancestral Remains provides the opportunity to make redress for past wrongs, and to reflect on the attitudes which informed the dehumanizing practices of their past collection and display. Indigenous Ancestral Remains are critical to truth-telling in Australia as by their very existence and materiality they disrupt colonial narratives about terra nullius. However, human remains are also a powerful reminder of the limits of human rights processes. We consider the potential of the National Resting Place as a new Australian site of truth and memory to disrupt the traditional ‘museum’ model and to restore the dignity and respect owing to previously objectified human remains.