Introduction

The late twentieth century saw various initiatives to address issues surrounding the ethics and treatment of the dead in museum and other collections (e.g. in papers produced by the World Archaeological Congress [1989] and the Museum Ethnographers Group [1994]). By the early twenty-first century, these matters warranted even greater attention, and in May 2001, Britain established a Working Group on Human Remains, with the remit ‘to examine the current status of human remains within the collections of publicly-funded Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom, and consider the desirability and possible form of legislative change in this area’ (DCMS Report 2005:5).

This Working Group produced a report (DCMS 2003), and there was subsequent consultation on this document (DCMS 2004). Together, these formed the basis for the DCMS Report (2005), which sets out nonstatutory guidance for museums in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, who own permanent collections of human remains, and other organisations where human remains form part of their teaching, research, or display functions.

The DCMS Report (2005) provides information relating to a legal and ethical framework for the treatment of human remains; the curation, care and use of remains; and a framework for handling claims, where appropriate, for the repatriation of human remains to indigenous communities.

This report recognises the contribution to the modern world that research, teaching and, where appropriate, display of human remains can make, but also acknowledges that, because of their ‘personal, cultural, symbolic, spiritual or religious significance to individuals and, or, groups’ (DCMS 2005:7), human remains have a unique status in museum and other collections, and therefore require special attention.