Q and A: Dr John Scally

Published on Tuesday 8 July 2008 22:16

The director of the University of Edinburgh collections was present this week for an Aboriginal ritual smoking ceremony, as the university repatriated the last of its historic human remains.

What was the reaction of the archivists who discovered the stirrup bone?

Dr Cressida Fforde, a wonderfully talented archivist, found it during a comprehensive recataloguing of our anatomy collection. It was in the basement of a cellar area in the university's old medical school, in a tiny little vial. She called me as soon as she found it, and we knew instantly we had to repatriate it.

What did you think of the ritual smoking ceremony carried out by the Ngarrindjeri people to cleanse the site?

It was a lovely experience to be beside Major Sumner of the Ngarrindjeri in his full regalia. The smell of eucalyptus was lovely, although I was a bit concerned the smell of smoke would stay with my new suit. In all, it was a very moving experience.

Although it is now considered morally unacceptable to put these kinds of human remains on public display, have they benefited the academic and medical world by being in safekeeping?

The artefacts came to the university for purposes of research that are now regarded as discredited – specifically, the physical differences between races. Science and medicine can explore a lot of bogus fields, but, in doing so, it helped us move into more fruitful areas.