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Paper Short Abstract

Edinburgh University holds the skulls of 1780 people with incomplete provenance. I explore how activist-oriented ethnographic research shared this difficult and sensitive knowledge with descendants, balancing ethical risks and challenges in in spaces with limited authority.

Paper Abstract

Edinburgh University's Anatomical Museum's "Skull Room" contains the ancestral remains of nearly 1800 people, who often have missing, fragmented or incomplete provenance. As no online catalogue exists, descendants are often unaware their ancestors are interned here. This paper reflects on the potential of activist-orientated ethnographic research to meaningfully engage with this colonial collection by affiliating these people to contemporary descendant communities. I show how anthropological research brings visibility to these contested spaces by sharing knowledge about these ancestors to First Nations descendants. I reflect on the process of seeking an ethically sensitive approach to share difficult knowledge and collaborate with descendants to fill in the gaps in the colonial archive.

As such, the paper reflects on what anthropologists may learn from initiating ‘activist-orientated' research within higher education institutions, particularly when proactive anti-colonial approaches in the museum have not been established. Researchers were tasked with balancing various political and ethical risks to reckon with these colonial legacies, and challenged the limited decision-making power of the collection. How can academics conduct anti-colonial projects in spaces where they have limited authority? How may anthropologists do collaborative work with communities, when ancestors’ identities are missing? Considering the sensitive nature of this work, what does an ethical, careful and collaborative methodology look like for such a contested collection? The projects challenged anthropologists to examine their accountabilities to this work and to descendants, whilst also asking them to consider what they stand to gain from these research encounters.