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SPK returns human remains to Hawai'i
Press release from 02/07/2022
On 11 February 2022, the SPK will hand over the human remains of 32 individuals to representatives of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA). These have been in the care of the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin since 2011.
At the end of 2021, the SPK Board of Trustees decided that human remains from the collection of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History and grave goods from the collection of the Ethnological Museum should be returned to Hawai'i. The first step will now be the repatriation of the human remains, the so-called iwi kūpuna.
Edward Halealoha Ayau, the head of the OHA delegation who will receive the human remains at a ceremony in Berlin, says: "We are recognising the agony of our ancestors and taking responsibility for their welfare (and therefore our own) by repatriating them for reburial. In doing this important work, we - Germans and Hawaiians - also recognise our respective humanity and celebrate it together in aloha, in mutual affection, as we write a new chapter in our historical relationship as human beings. We would like to thank everyone who helped us, including Consul for Cultural Affairs David Mees of the US Embassy Berlin and Dr Robert Peters of the German Federal Foreign Office.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, said: "I am glad that these iwi kūpuna can now return to their place of origin and be buried there. I would like to thank the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and its representative Mr Ayau for their excellent and professional cooperation in the identification and repatriation process. The Board of Trustees of the SPK approved my proposal for repatriation at its meeting on 2 December 2021. To enable further restitutions, we will gradually research the entire Luschan collection acquired from the Charité in 2011. I am pleased that we have already achieved this goal with regard to Hawai'i and found a good solution."
Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture and the Media, emphasised: "Human remains from colonial contexts have no place in our museums and universities; their return must be a priority. I am therefore delighted that, in addition to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, other German museums and universities are returning the iwi kūpuna to Hawaii. Colonial history has left many wounds. We must do our part to ensure that these wounds can be closed - through restitution, through a consistent reappraisal and examination of our colonial past and through greater international cultural exchange. We need to decolonise thinking in all areas."
The human remains from Hawai'i are part of the anthropological collections that the foundation took over from the Charité in 2011 and whose provenance it is gradually researching. The bones were collected around 1880 by the collector and naturalist Hermann Otto Finsch (1839-1917) during his first trip to the South Seas (1879-1882) and sent to Berlin, where they became part of the Luschan Collection. Most of them are probably several hundred years old. They could be assigned to a site called Waimānalo on the island of O'ahu, where Finsch collected them on the beach. It is probably a historical burial site where the bones were partially exposed due to the effects of wind and sea. Another two skulls come from a place that can no longer be precisely identified today, but in any case from Hawai'i. Since the end of 2017, the SPK and the OHA have been in talks about the repatriation of the human remains. The United States government is supporting the OHA in its request. The SPK has declared that it will return human remains from colonial contexts that it has in its care if the relevant countries and societies of origin are known and wish to repatriate them. These conditions have been met with regard to the iwi kūpuna that are now to be returned.
The circumstances surrounding the appropriation of the grave goods in the collection of the Ethological Museum, which are also to be returned, also speak in favour of their return. They come from Eduard Arning's collection and, according to him, were taken from burial caves in Hawai'i around 1885. In his diary entries, Arning reports that he entered the caves secretly and expressly avoided being seen by Hawaiians, who would certainly have disapproved of his actions. The grave goods are to be returned to Hawai'i in the course of 2022.
Processing the anthropological collection at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History
The Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin took over historical anthropological collections from the Charité in 2011. These are around 7,700 human remains from almost all parts of the world, which were collected in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Around 40 per cent have a colonial acquisition background from the former German overseas territories in Africa and the Pacific region.
From 2017 to 2019, the origin of around 1,000 human skulls from the former colony of German East Africa was analysed in a pilot project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The aim is to return these bones in the near future. A three-year research project on 477 human skulls that were brought to Germany from West Africa during the colonial era has been running since July 2021 and is funded by the federal government's cultural budget. The aim of the SPK is to successively research the exact origin of all human remains so that they can be returned.
Repatriations
In 2020, the first human remains were returned from the collections of the National Museums in Berlin. Two toi moko (mummified and tattooed Māori heads) kept in the Ethnological Museum were handed over to Te Arikirangi Mamaku, a representative of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which has been commissioned by the New Zealand government to repatriate the mortal remains of Māori ancestors since 2003. In 2020, the SPK also decided to return the remains of three people - also kept in the Ethnological Museum - to Australia. Due to the pandemic, the repatriation has not yet taken place.
SPK's basic attitude to the handling of human remains in its collections
https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/schwerpunkte/provenienzforschung-und-eigentumsfragen/umgang-mit-menschlichen-ueberresten.html
Office of Hawaiian Affairs:
www.oha.org
Press contact:
Alice Malepeai Silbanuz, Communications Director
E-mail: alices@oha.org
Phone: +61 (808) 285-7586
Participation in the return ceremony in Berlin
Unfortunately, only a few media representatives will be able to attend the ceremony for the return of the iwi kūpuna on 11 February 2022, 5 pm, due to lack of space. Please also note that the event will take place under 2G+ conditions (vaccinated / recovered, with booster or daily test) and that wearing an FFP2 mask is mandatory.
If you are interested in participating, please register at
pressestelle@hv.spk-berlin.de by 9 February 2022, 12 noon. Participation is only possible if you have received confirmation of accreditation from us.
