A formal apology in Tasmania’s parliament for the past practice of taking human specimens from autopsies and displaying them highlights the importance of repatriation.

The RA Rodda Pathology Museum at the University of Tasmania, established in 1966, is currently in possession of about 2,700 human body parts. At least 177 of these were obtained without consent from their loved ones.

Most of these human bodies were collected from individuals who, at the time of their death, required an autopsy. A coroner’s investigation found that, between 1966 and 1991, forensic and hospital pathologists employed by Tasmania’s Department of Health stole these human organs and tissues. At no point were the families of the individuals contacted for their consent.

On 19 May, Tasmania’s health minister Bridget Archer delivered an apology to the loved ones of the individuals on display between 1966 to 1991. The practice was formally ceased in 1997. In the audience were people who had lost family members as long ago as 1976, but who were not informed of the display until 2025.

The incident points to a broader issue with how human remains have been collected, stored and displayed in Australian institutions. Institutional audits in 2023 and 2024 found that, combined, more than 600 ancestral remains from the Pacific region were being stored in the Queensland Museum, the National Museum of Australia and the Australian Museum, some of these since 1862. More........

© Pearls and Irritations