'Inhuman and Very Mischievous Traffic': Early measures to cease the export of Ancestral Remains from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia

Abstract

This chapter considers 19th- and early 20th-century official measures, including legislation, to prevent the trade in, and regulate the export of, Indigenous human remains from New Zealand and Australia. It details the immediate historical context of the development of this legislation and its past and current implications for the supply and repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Museum archives reveal successful (and unsuccessful) attempts by collectors to break the law, suggesting there may be many Indigenous human remains in overseas institutions that were illegally exported from their country of origin. If so, such illegality provides holding institutions with few options than to repatriate. It is important to note that this chapter considers the ‘rule of law’ from the perspective of the settler state. Indigenous peoples have their own laws governing appropriate treatment of the deceased.