Dead Images Facing the history, ethics, and politics of European skull collections The exhibition Part of the TRACES project, DEAD IMAGES is an artistic exploration of the complex and contentious legacy of collections of human skulls that held by public institutions in Europe. These assemblages of the remains of the dead were created during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when scientists sought to elaborate ideas of human difference through the comparative study of crania. Some skulls were taken close to home, others were looted from battlefield sites or the graves of indigenous peoples, taken without consent and in violation of local beliefs concerning the sanctity of the dead and the reverence for ancestors. We live with this legacy. It resides in our cities. Often it is hidden but it is still with us. The DEAD IMAGES exhibition, created by Tal Adler in collaboration with a team of fellow artists, historians, bioarchaeologists and anthropologists, brings this legacy to light by exhibiting a life-sized 30 meter photograph of part of one such collection, a gathering of more than 8,000 skulls which resides on shelves along a corridor in the Natural History Museum of Vienna. In exhibiting this photograph, this exhibition asks questions of ourselves, our ambivalent curiosity and our own desire to see that which is withheld. Who are we to show such a photograph and to gaze upon the bones of others as an artistic or scientific spectacle? We explore these questions through a series of filmed works, in which different people speak to this history, their own beliefs and feelings and whether or not we should display this photograph. The choice to see the photograph, finally, rests with the visitor and in making a choice visitors are asked to reflect upon this history, the work of bringing this history to light, the ethics and politics of making such a display visible and the role that descendants, curators, scientists, artists and the public may play in reimagining a place and purpose for these remains of once-living people. The conference Whether considered at an individual or population level, collections of human remains contain multiple biographies that encompass the biological and historical and the personal. Narratives generated from these different biographies – by descendants, archaeologists, anthropologists, artists, curators and historians – are often represented as has having conflicting or opposing purposes, built on contradictory principles and values. Artistic engagements with these remains, such as DEAD IMAGES, may provide the opportunity to confront, appraise and mediate these tensions by creating unsettling spaces of encounter that transcend the limitations of history and science. In doing so they invite the possibility of an open and reflexive appreciation of other perspectives on this challenging heritage. This meeting brings together diverse reflections on encounters with collections of human remains, to critically explore the histories, including histories of violence and dispossession, which are disclosed in these diasporic gatherings of bones and the problematic of their ongoing dwelling within the public sphere. Throughout the day of the Friday, the 29th of June, our invited speakers will discuss these issues, presenting papers, pieces, provocations and polemics which emerge from upon their own engagements with the complex legacy of these collections and the lessons that may be learned from these engagements. Time will be given for discussion and collaborative reflection. TRACES is a three-year project funded in 2016 by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and focusing on challenges and opportunities raised when transmitting contentious cultural heritages in contemporary Europe. The Project deploys innovative research practices based on an artistic/ethnographic approach, and involves a multi-disciplinary team that brings together established and emerging scholars, artists, and cultural workers, in order to develop a rigorous, creative investigation on a range of contentious cultural heritages. To achieve this objective, TRACES has initiated a series of art-based action researches, of which DEAD IMAGES is one, supported and complemented by theoretical investigations with the aim to eventually identify new directions for cultural institutions and museums to effectively transmit contentious cultural heritage and contribute productively to evolving European identities. For more information see: http://www.tracesproject.eu/. Dead Images Exhibition Opening and Conference Programme 11.45am-12.45pm Session 3 Christine Borland: From Life 1994 to Circles of Focus 2016 – The development of art works which reconsider the anonymous subjects of medical and anatomical research and display Layla Renshaw: Bones as wounds: the role of human remains in memory campaigns 12.45-2.00pm Lunch break Thursday, 28th of June, 2018 (exhibition opening and reception) 6.30pm Venue opens 6.45pm Welcome and introduction 7.00-7.45pm Tal Adler and Charlotte Roberts in conversation, moderated by Sam Alberti 7.45-9.00pm Reception and viewing of DEAD IMAGES 9.30pm Venue closes 2.00-3.00pm Session 4 Konradin Kunze: Skull X – too close to the bone? Joan Smith: The colour of skulls: rethinking the Edinburgh skull collection 3.00-4.00pm Session 5 Anna Szöke: The absence of the gift - discussing human remains through the politics of gift-giving Te Herekiekie Herewini and June Jones: Respecting the ancestors Friday, 29th of June, 2018 (Dead Images conference) 8.45am Venue opens 9.00am Welcome 9.15-10.15am Session 1 Maria Teschler-Nicola: Euphoric beginning – dysphoric present? Collection history, experiences, and challenges with the repatriation of human remains (temporarily) kept at the Natural History Museum Vienna Sabine Eggers: From the peripheries to the core: collaboration today to heal wounds from the past? 10.15-11.15am Session 2 Elise Smith: Craniologists and cranial collections in Victorian racial science Rebecca Redfern: Sharing the lives of past Londoners: human remains curated by the Museum of London 11.15-11.45am Coffee, tea and biscuits 4.00-4.30pm Coffee, tea and tray bakes 4.30-6.00pm Session 6 Paul Turnbull: The Indigenous dead in memory, history and reconciliation Elizabeth James-Perry: Remembering key tenets of Maushop’s Beach James Riding In: A simple matter of justice and human rights: American Indian quests for repatriation and burial rights 6.00-6.15pm Final remarks and close 6.30pm Venue closes Saturday, 30th of June, 2018 10.30-11.45am Lecture performance of “Skull X” (“Schädel X”) by Flinn Works, in the Red Lecture Theatre, Summerhall (1 Summerhall Place). (The audience for this performance is limited to 50, if you are interested in attending, please speak to John Harries (j.harries@ed.ac.uk)) Dead Images Exhibition opening and discussion Conference abstracts On the evening of Thursday, June the 28th, we will open the DEAD IMAGES exhibition with a wine reception and viewing. This will be preceded by a conversation between Tal Adler, artist and creator of the panorama, and Charlotte Roberts, professor of bioarchaeology at Durham University, moderated by Sam Alberti of National Museums Scotland. The discussion will consider the ethics and politics of our engagements with the remains of the dead and the possibility that art-science collaborations may offer a critical space for such considerations. Charlotte and Tal will explore the complexities and potential contentiousness of using human remains for a variety of purposes, including education of people beyond academia, and the question of ownership of these legacy collections. They will also discuss the wider collections of human remains curated in museums across the world. In so doing, they will consider the need to “face up” to this legacy that humans have created, address the question of who “owns” the dead in these collections and whether we could do better in how human remains are ethically, sensitively and respectfully treated in the future. Christine Borland From Life 1994 to Circles of Focus 2016: The development of art works which reconsider the anonymous subjects of medical and anatomical research and display. In Christine Borland’s 1994 exhibition From Life the starting point was a human skeleton purchased from a British company, which imported and supplied real bone materials for medical training purposes. The exhibition traced the artist’s attempts to reconstruct an identity for the skeleton with the help of osteologists, forensic scientists and facial reconstruction experts. The artist will discuss this and successive works including the project Cast From Nature; a painstaking live casting procedure and subsequent exhibition which took as its subject an anonymous, flayed, 19th century anatomical life cast stored in the basement of Edinburgh Medical School for decades. Circles of Focus is a recent collaborative project with artist Brody Condon (Berlin): it is an ambitious, performative and on-going project (CCA Glasgow 2015 & Stroom Den Haag 2016) in which Borland and Condon work with individuals who are signed up to, or considering registering for, Anatomical Bequest, to interrogate the potential of body donation for artistic as well as scientific research. Sabine Eggers From the peripheries to the core: Collaboration today to heal wounds from the past? Collections of human remains are a unique record of life and death in the past. They contain marks of identities and ways of life, being critical to the understanding of our biocultural (micro-) evolution. Their way into public institutions, in contrast, sheds light on the more recent history, on colonialism, the interactions between different peoples, political hierarchies and (scientific) racism, resulting in long-lasting socio-cultural wounds. Ethical concerns as to meaning, purposes and spiritual significance of these collections are cultural constructs intertwined with group identities and changing through time and space and so need to be carefully addressed. In this context, I first focus on how human remains shaped my own trajectory. Then, I narrate my encounters with local communities, the general public and children from the periphery of South America and only recently in Europe regarding exposition, scientific analyses and destiny of human remains. Next, I discuss my personal views and wishes on how to approach ethical constraints associated with specific parts of collections of human remains. Finally, I expose the concerns and considerations which we, as curators of the osteological collection at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, take into account when dealing with requests for provenance research and repatriation. Our work towards creating forms of “respectful collaboration” will be open for discussion. Te Herekiekie Herewini and June Jones Respecting the ancestors Māori and Moriori ancestral remains began leaving their homelands for international destinations from the time Captain Cook’s Endeavour arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1769. Te Papa’s research indicates over 1000 ancestral remains were collected, traded and exported from this time. Despite the separation of distance and time, these ancestors continue to have great cultural connection to their homeland and their respective communities of origin. We will present an indigenous-led approach to repatriation, in particular highlighting the deep spiritual and cultural significance ancestral remains continue to have for Māori and Moriori, as well as presenting a bi-cultural approach to their care while they are housed temporarily in Te Papa’s sacred repository (Wāhi Tapu), before they are reunited with their communities of origin. Institutions who hold collections of ancient human remains are in positions of power with regard to indigenous requests for dialogue. Colonial attitudes which led to the collection of the ancestral human remains many years ago are often in play when institutions refuse requests for repatriation. The vast majority of countries who hold collections of indigenous human remains are signatories to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (2008) which provides for dialogue and repatriation. This presentation will discuss why we believe there is a moral obligation to engage in dialogue and why indigenous voices ought to play a larger role in framing questions about how their ancestors are treated until repatriation takes place. Elizabeth James-Perry Remembering key tenets of Maushop’s Beach A central aspect of Indigenous Wampanoag belief is the importance of caring for the elders and ancestors. As First Contact people, the Eastern Nations of Turtle Island have experienced disruption due to sickness, enslavement, and displacement historically, and the looting of our burial grounds for goods, furs and bodies. This colonizing culture of interruption and appropriation is something tribal people have had to face for hundreds of years. The passage of NAGPRA in the United States now allows tribes the physical reclamation of ancestral human remains that is just one aspect of the healing that needs to take place as we come to terms with the betrayal, destruction, loss that were an intentional suspension of the natural laws we hold most important. Konradin Kunze Skull X – Too close to the bone? With “Skull X” (Schädel X) the Berlin based theatre company Flinn Works turned the sensitive subject of colonial skull collections into a lecture-performance. Konradin Kunze will talk about his research in Germany and Tanzania, the challenges of dealing with this subject on stage, and audience reactions. Can a skull re-transform from a scientific object into a human subject? How much fiction can be added to the facts? Can one perform racist “scientific” practises on stage without reproducing racism? Can a white actor talk about a “black” skull? Is there an ethic difference between a real skull and an artificial one? Is it too close to the bone? In addition, Konradin will give an insight in his search for the skull of chief Meli from Old Moshi, Tanzania, and how German institutions reacted to his requests. To this day nobody was able to find Meli’s skull, so Flinn Works offered the Old Moshi community something else. Rebecca Redfern Sharing the lives of past Londoners: Human remains curated by the Museum of London In London everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.’ – Paddington Bear The Museum of London curates the remains of over 20,000 individuals, all of whom have been encountered through archaeological excavation or the whim of the River Thames. Paddington’s observation is very apt for my work as the curator for these people, and in this talk I will share the myriad and increasingly diverse ways in which these human remains make a significant and unique contribution to the Museum’s activities and outputs, and also explore the ethical and practical issues which arise from these often contrasting situations. Layla Renshaw Bones as wounds: The role of human remains in memory campaigns This contribution is grounded in the author’s experience of postconflict and mass grave investigations, both as an archaeologist and forensic practitioner, and as an ethnographer recording the reflections and memories of relatives of the dead. This paper focuses on the dead and missing from periods of war and repression, a category that includes the imagined remains of the missing, those still lying in mass graves, and those bodies recovered and formally buried in war cemeteries. The multiple ways in which human remains serve to galvanise and structure confrontations with the traumatic past will be explored. The recovery of human remains from conflict enable descendant communities to articulate their rights and ownership over the past, and to challenge dominant narratives of those conflicts. Human remains, and the forensic techniques used to recover them, have powerful affordances, creating new representations of the past, and enabling the production of complex images. The role of human remains as a focus for new forms of commemoration, inspiring and articulating new emotional and imaginative connections to the past, will also be addressed. These different properties of the bodies of war dead present possible points of commonality or comparison with the affordances of those human remains in museums and scientific collections. James Riding In A simple matter of justice and human rights: American Indian quests for repatriation and burial rights American Indians have been struggling for decades in the national and international arenas to stop abuses committed against their dead in the name of science and to repatriate human remains ancestral to them for a proper and lasting burial. To them, it is a simple matter of justice and human rights. This conflict pitting Indigenous peoples and their allies against archaeologists, physical anthropologists, museum curators, lawmakers, and others is a global phenomenon. Members of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, including this presenter, have been at the forefront of this movement. My presentation will address major accomplishments American Indians of the United States have made in gaining legislation that seeks to ensure the repatriation of human remains, funerary objects, objects of cultural patrimony, and sacred objects belonging to them while focusing primarily on human rights matters and systemic racism in the sciences and museums. It considers why institutions in Europe and elsewhere must take proactive measures to end their involvement in the mistreatment of Indian human remains and to adopt meaningful repatriation policies and practices. Elise Smith Craniologists and cranial collections in Victorian racial science In the mid-nineteenth century, craniometry—the measurement of human skulls—emerged as the dominant expression of racial science. Vast collections of human crania were assembled to enable this research, and within Britain over 20,000 skulls were gathered by museums, medical schools, and private collectors. This paper will consider the formation of craniological collections through the example of one large private collection, that of Joseph Barnard Davis (later bought by the Royal College of Surgeons), and of one University collection, acquired by Alexander Macalister for the Anatomy Department of the University of Cambridge. It will particularly examine the personalities of Davis and Macalister in determining how the human remains in their collections were organised, displayed, and interpreted as specimens. They also reveal the singular status of human skulls as specimens for research. As I shall argue, the politics of collection and display challenged the supposed objectivity of racial science. Rather than defining characteristic traits, researchers were often drawn to the life stories of specimens—and in so doing, inadvertently emphasised the humanity of their subjects. The material culture of craniology therefore adds a further dimension to our understanding of Victorian racial science. Joan Smith The colour of skulls: Rethinking the Edinburgh skull collection Encountering the collection of skulls housed in a specially designed room in the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School for the first time can be an overwhelming experience. Organised by country of origin, the rows of skulls surround you in the almost cubic space. A small spiral stair allows access to the balcony level, where British Islanders are the first to meet your gaze. As is the case with most collections like this, many of the skulls were gathered for what was considered to be the scientific purpose of investigation into racial differences; however, the repetition of form in the row upon row of skulls points more to the similarities and connections between peoples; the subtle differences evidence the variations from person to person rather than from race to race. The familiar staring, grinning form of the human skull is so ubiquitous, so familiar, so imbued with existing references, so over-used in so many ways that it is almost impossible to find a fresh artistic approach to the skull as a subject. This presentation describes an art project which aims to rethink the skull collection by analysing it using something not often associated with skulls: colour. Anna Szöke The absence of the gift: Discussing human remains through the politics of gift-giving Inventory Number 5015. The paper box with the handwritten inventory number lies in the front row of a long glass-faced cabinet in a hallway at the Natural History Museum Vienna. It sits in between thousands of human skulls, which are housed at the Anthropology Department of the museum. The box of Inv.Nr. 5015 is empty. A small note is placed inside the box, in place of the skull of the individual which is expected to rest there. It reads: “Im Panzerschrank” (“In the safe”). Who is the individual who is labelled “Inv. Nr. 5015”, how did they become part of this collection and why are they in the safe? This paper explores the politics of a gift that was made 113 years ago to the emperor of Austria. It applies the logic of the gift, as discussed by Marcel Mauss, to this case and others. By doing so, it also invites thinking through moral and legal aspects of human remains as gifts. Which political power structures were involved in the action of giving? What kind of social relationships were created and how have these relations transformed through time? Finally, it will also question the gift-giving of human remains, emphasizing their inherent tension of being subject and object for different sets of people at the same time. Maria Teschler-Nicola Title: Euphoric beginning – dysphoric present? Collection history, experiences, and challenges with the repatriation of human remains (temporarily) kept at the Natural History Museum Vienna When Anthropology at the NHM Vienna became institutionalised it was shaped by euphoric efforts to collect, amongst other material, historic and modern human remains. The maxim of continued expansion and completion of our natural history repositories and their associated archives, be it for research or exposition, confronts us today with an over 130-year-old legacy that poses a multitude of questions concerning historical acquisition policy, ethical responsibility, and appropriate handling. The collections, which must be administered and considered with regard to their scientific and historical relevance, documentation and value as witnesses, or other significance, include human relics, which number about 40,000; some of them have a contentious provenience and are the focus of critical attention and reflection. These discourses came to the fore in the 1980s when indigenous communities began to make representations for return of their ancestors’ remains and while investigating the intended aims of the archivists of National Socialist times. Thus, it is vital that an awareness of this issue composes an integral part of today´s scientific and curatorial policy. The contribution aims to shed light on selected aspects of the collection’s history, based on the forMuse project, as well as to summarise some experiences and challenges which arose from repatriation processes of human relics and the dialog with the indigenous communities and/or other stakeholders. Paul Turnbull The Indigenous dead in memory, history and reconciliation In this presentation, I will discuss the aims, and some of the more significant outcomes to date, of the Return, Reconcile, Renew Project. The repatriation of the remains of Old People to their community of origin is an extraordinary Indigenous achievement of the past 40 years. The Return, Reconcile, Renew Project is providing new knowledge of repatriation, its history and effects. Currently we are actively undertaking provenance research assisting the repatriation of the remains of Old People by the Ngarrindjeri nation of South Australia, the peoples of the Kimberley Region of Western Australia, and Torres Strait communities. But, importantly, the Project equally involves community-based research on the effects of repatriation, and its current and future roles in community development. While speaking about the Return, Reconcile, Renew Project, I will also offer some reflections on my encounters with the remains of Old People in medico-scientific collections over what is now more than twenty years, and in particular share my thoughts on how these unexpected and sometimes disturbing experiences have influenced my thinking about how we can best confront and effect reconciliation with this very difficult aspect of the colonial past. Skull X (“Schädel X”): A lecture-performance by Flinn Works Thousands of human skulls from all over the world are lying in the basements of German universities and museums. Many of them stem from the former colonies. Most of these skulls were unjustly taken from already buried bodies or from the corpses of killed “insurgents”. These skulls were brought to Germany as trophies. In institutes of anthropology, scientists researched and examined the skulls in order to substantiate theories of race. With Rudolf von Virchow and Felix von Luschan, Berlin became the centre of the skull collectors. 100 years later, more and more demands are being made for the respectful handling of these skulls and their restitution to their descendants. Universities and museums are slowly starting to look into their basements and at this dark chapter in their history. The first restitution of skulls to the Herero and Nama people in Namibia in 2011 turned into a diplomatic disaster. Research into the origins of the skulls is costly and complicated. Rarely can a skull be linked to a specific individual and questions remain as to whether research on the skulls is indeed a second debasement of these human remains. A skull forms the centre of this lecture-performance. Two biographical stories revolve around it. They lead from Germany to Tanzania, across archives, consulates and battlefields, from colonial history to the present and into the skull of each audience member. With historical documents and sound files, they connect to a bizarre odyssey between science, politics and theatre. Concept, Research & Performance: Konradin Kunze; Director: Sophia Stepf; Sound Design: Andi Otto; Video Design: Jürgen Salzmann; Technician: Marcello Lussana; Production Management: ehrliche arbeit - freies Kulturbüro and Helena Tsiflidis; Interviews with: Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, Isaria Anael Meli, Upendo Moshi & Gerhard Ziegenfuss. A Flinn Works Production in coproduction with Sophiensæle Berlin. Supported by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst and Kulturamt der Stadt Kassel See: http://flinnworks.de/en/project/sch%C3%A4del-x-skull-x Biographies Tal Adler (CARMAH, Humboldt University of Berlin) Tal Adler is an artist and researcher at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Heritage and Museums at the Humboldt University Berlin. For the TRACES project, he developed long term Creative Coproductions between artists, researchers and institutions, for creating meaningful and sustainable ways to disseminate contentious cultural heritages. For over two decades he has been developing methods of collaborative artistic research for engaging with difficult pasts and conflicted communities in Israel/Palestine and in Europe. Since 2011, he has been conducting extensive artistic research on the politics of memory and display in Austria, publishing and exhibiting artistic work on difficult heritage at marginal and established museums, landscapes, sites of commemoration and civil society organizations. Sam Alberti (National Museums Scotland) Sam Alberti is Keeper of Science & Technology at National Museums Scotland, and Honorary Professor in the Centre for Environment, Heritage and Policy at the University of Stirling. He trained in the history of science and medicine; after teaching at the University of Manchester he was Director of Museums and Archives at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (which includes the Hunterian Museum). He has worked on exhibitions tackling race; museum history; anatomy models; and the First World War. His books include Nature and Culture: Objects, Disciplines and the Manchester Museum (2009); and (with Elizabeth Hallam) Medical Museums - Past Present Future (2013). Christine Borland (Department of Arts, Northumbria University) Christine Borland is an artist whose work explores our physical and psychological sense of self in relation to society’s institutions: science, medicine, museology and academia. By introducing the imaginary to these arenas, her works engender a new aesthetic relationship with the subject matter and makes visible people and practices, usually inaccessible to a general public. Borland was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1997; she is currently developing a major commission for 14-18 NOW and Glasgow Museums (supported by the Art Fund) reflecting on the centenary of World War I. Borland is a Professor of Art at Northumbria University. Sabine Eggers (Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna) Born to European parents in the former Portuguese colony Brazil, she studied human biology and received her MSc and PhD respectively on historical demography and on psychosocial aspects of genetic counselling from the Universities of Vienna and Sao Paulo. This cross-cultural biography shaped her interest in cultural influences on biological features related to health and disease, mainly in past societies. For 20 years she was a professor at the University of Sao Paulo teaching medical genetics and human evolution. Since her research subject and the supervision of MSc and PhD students, however, focused on bioarchaeology of South American groups, she also was a curator for Brazilian prehistoric osteological collections. As curator of the Department of Anthropology at the Natural History Museum in Vienna since 2017 she has only recently been confronted directly with formal issues of repatriation. Te Herekiekie Herewini (Museum of New Zealand / Te Papa Tongarewa) Te Herekiekie Herewini is Head of Repatriation at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa). His role is to facilitate the repatriation of Māori and Moriori ancestral remains housed in overseas institutions. Te Herekiekie undertakes this work with his team members, supported by the Repatriation Advisory Panel, an expert group of Māori and Moriori elders who strategically plan, initiate the formal request to repatriate, negotiate, and physically uplift the return of the Māori and Moriori remains collected (stolen) and traded from their homeland and sacred burial places. Since 2003 Te Papa through the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme has worked in partnership with numerous international institutions, including the University of Birmingham, to repatriate over 450 Māori and Moriori ancestral remains. Konradin Kunze (writer, director and actor, Berlin) Konradin Kunze is a freelance writer, director and actor. He holds a diploma in acting from the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. He acted for several years at Theater Bremen and Schauspielhaus Hamburg. Since 2011 he collaborates with the Berlin based theatre and performance company Flinn Works. In the last few years, Flinn Works has produced several projects dealing with the German colonial history: Konradin’s solo lecture performance “Skull X” (“Schädel X”) on human remains and the Tanzanian-German theatre performance “Maji Maji Flava” on the Maji Maji War. Currently he is working on “The Skull of Mangi Meli”, a video sculpture and exhibition on the biography of the anti-colonial fighter chief Meli. June Jones (School of Medicine, University of Birmingham) Dr Jones is Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Ethics and Lead on Religious and Cultural Diversity at the University of Birmingham. She leads the repatriation programme of ancient human remains for the University. She has collaborated on three repatriations: to return ancestors to the Salinan Tribe of Native Americans, Aboriginal Australian ancestors to the Australian Government’s Advisory Committee for Indigenous Repatriation and Māori ancestors to Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand. She is also Head of the University of Birmingham Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics. Her work centres on the moral obligation of holding institutions to work collaboratively with indigenous groups to ensure that their claims are treated honourably and that the desire of ancestors to return home to their final resting place is paramount in negotiations. Elizabeth James-Perry (Senior Cultural Resource Monitor within the Aquinnah Tribal Historic Preservation Office) Elizabeth James-Perry is a citizen of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head -Aquinnah, located by the richly coloured clay cliffs of Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard). As a member of a Nation that has long lived on and harvested the sea, Elizabeth’s is a perspective that combines art, genealogy, Native storytelling and traditional environmental knowledge in her ways of relating to coastal North Atlantic life. Elizabeth’s work has received national recognition, and in 2014 she was awarded the Traditional Arts Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She has worked for the last ten years in the Aquinnah Tribal Historic Preservation Office, serves as the federal Tribal Co-Lead of the Northeast Regional Ocean Planning Body, and consults on National Park Service Battlefield Grant projects. Elizabeth holds a degree in Marine Science and resides in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Rebecca Redfern (Human Osteology, Museum of London) Dr Redfern has been curator of osteology at the Museum of London since 2008, having previously worked at The British Museum and Museum of London Archaeology. Rebecca has delivered several exhibitions concerned with human remains, including ‘Skeletons: Our Buried Bones’ with the Wellcome Collection; her current work involves using human remains in school workshops, and thinking about how the lives of past Londoners can be shared in the Museum’s new venue. Rebecca’s research focuses on bioarchaeology, and the ethics and practice of curating and researching human remains. She has published extensively on these topics, most recently in World Archaeology. Layla Renshaw (Applied and Human Sciences, Kingston University London) Dr Layla Renshaw is an Associate Professor of Forensic Science at Kingston University where she teaches forensic archaeology and anthropology. She has worked as an assistant archaeologist to the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal in Kosovo and has conducted extensive fieldwork in Spain. She is the author of Exhuming Loss: Memory, Materiality and Mass Graves of the Spanish Civil War. Her research interests include the relationship between human remains and memory, and the public perception of forensics. Her recent work concerns the recovery of war dead from post-colonial contexts and she is writing a book on the identification of ANZAC soldiers on the Western Front, exploring the link between genetic testing and memory. James Riding In (American Indian Studies, Arizona State University) An activist scholar and a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, Dr Riding In is the editor of Wicazo Sa Review. Much of his research focuses on the role scientists have played in the desecration of American Indian burials and the measure Indians have taken to curb those widespread abuses. His scholarship also examines the effects of colonialism on the sovereignty, landholdings, human rights, health, welfare, religious freedom, and cultural integrity of Indian nations. He is the co-editor of Native Historians Write Back: Decolonizing American Indian History (2011) and is now working on a book about Pawnee survival under colonization. Charlotte Roberts (Department of Archaeology, Durham University) Professor Roberts is a bioarchaeologist at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University, with a background in archaeology, environmental archaeology, human bioarchaeology, and nursing. She has studied and interpreted human remains from archaeological sites for the past 35 years, and is specifically interested in exploring the interaction of past people with their environments through patterns of health and disease. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2014, and is currently the President of BABAO (British Association of Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology). She has published extensively, and alongside her academic career, she regularly engages with the public via lectures and TV and radio programmes. Elise Smith (Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick) Elise Smith is Assistant Professor in the History of Medicine at the University of Warwick. She specialises on the history of medicine and the life sciences in Britain and the British Empire since 1800, and has written on the history of racial science, anthropometry, and military medicine. She is currently revising her monograph, Skulls, Nation, and Empire: The Rise and Fall of British Craniology, 1800-1939. Joan Smith (Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh) Joan Smith is an artist and is currently Head of Art at Edinburgh College of Art where she teaches drawing, painting and anatomy. She is part of the TRACES DEAD IMAGES project and a member of the Bones Collective. Her research explores connections between anatomy and art, such as the objects used to teach anatomy to artists. Her exhibition with anthropologist Jeanne Cannizzo, ‘Smugglerius Unveiled’ at the Talbot Rice Gallery, focused on the ecorche created by William Hunter and Agostino Carlini; a forthcoming exhibition at Surgeons Hall Museum in Edinburgh is inspired by archival material from the museum’s collection. Anna Szöke (CARMAH, Humboldt University of Berlin) Anna Szöke is an art historian, curator and researcher at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage at the Humboldt University Berlin. She is part of the TRACES project, analysing the Creative Co-productions engagements with collections of difficult heritages, and their often troubling and violent history. She is also a member of TRACES DEAD IMAGES project. Prior to TRACES she worked at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna on an arts-based research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund, centred on human remains in institutional collections, in close collaboration with the Natural History Museum, Vienna. Until 2013 she was a curator of contemporary art at the Essl Museum in Austria. Maria Teschler-Nicola (Natural History Museum Vienna, University of Vienna) Maria Teschler-Nicola is a human biologist at the Department of Anthropology at the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna and teacher of Osteology at the University of Vienna, with an emphasis on pathological skeletal alterations that help to explore the interactions of past populations and their environment. In her role as director of the Department at the NHM she was entrusted to curate the osteological collection (1997-2015) and the pathologicalanatomical collection (2012-2015), as well as to establish several temporary and the new permanent exhibits on hominid evolution. She has not only extensively investigated human remains from different periods and perspectives, her interest was also oriented towards the history of the discipline in Austria, with a special focus on the period between 1860–1945. She is a collaborator in the TRACES DEAD IMAGES project. In 2014 she became an elected member of the “Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina”. Paul Turnbull (Digital Humanities and History, Universities of Tasmania and Queensland) Paul Turnbull holds honorary appointments as Professor of Digital Humanities and History at the Universities of Tasmania and Queensland. His recent publications include Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia (Palgrave 2017), which draws on the investigation of scientific archives in Europe, Australia, and other former British settler colonies to explain how the bodily remains of Indigenous Australians became the focus of scientific curiosity about the nature and origins of human diversity from the early years of colonisation in the late eighteenth century to Australia achieving nationhood at the turn of the twentieth century. Dead Images Exhibition Opening and Conference venue Project Team The Dead Images Exhibition will be on view at ECA Studios, C6, C7, C8, in the Main Building of the Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh. The opening night discussion and reception as well as the conference will take place in West Court (room C13), just opposite the studio space, also in the Main Building of the Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh. Tal Adler – Artist and researcher, Humboldt University of Berlin; Linda Fibiger – Senior lecturer in Human Osteoarchaeology, University of Edinburgh; John Harries – Senior teaching fellow in Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh; Joan Smith – Artist and printmaker, Head of Art, Edinburgh College of Art; Anna Szöke – Art historian, researcher, Humboldt University of Berlin; Maria Teschler-Nicola – Human biologist and anthropologist, former director of the Anthropological Department at the Vienna Natural History Museum; The lecture-performance of Skull X (“Schädel X”) by Konradin Kunze will take place from 10.30 – 11.45 in the Red Lecture Theatre of Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL. assisted by: ECA Main Building Ola Wojtkiewicz – Art historian and museum outreach professional, education research coordinator for DEAD IMAGES; Aglaja Kempinski – Social Anthropologist, University of Edinburgh, and ethnographer with DEAD IMAGES; Callum Fisher – ErasmusPlus Intern at CARMAH and project assistant for TRACES; Harriet Merrow – MA student, Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University Berlin, student assistant at CARMAH; Hayley Whittingham – MA Student, Edinburgh College of Art, Intern at Edinburgh College of Art and project assistant for TRACES. with input from: Francesca Lanz – Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano; Jacopo Leveratto – Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano. Summerhall For more information about the “Dead Images” project, including tours, talks and learning events see: http://dead-images.info/ https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/event/dead-images-facing-history-ethicsand-politics-european-skull-collections http://www.traces.polimi.it/portfolio-posts/portfolio-04/ You can also follow “Dead Images” on Twitter @Dead_Images