In the spring of 2024, Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr. undertook an expedition to the northeast of the New Guinea Island (Madang region). One of the results was the start of restitution of skulls of indigenous people of New Guinea taken for research in Australia in the XIX century by his ancestor and stored at The Chau Chak Wing Museum (University of Sydney).
Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr., Head of the Center for South Pacific Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Miklouho-Maclay Foundation, continues the traditions of research in the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea established by Russian researchers. Over the past seven years, he has initiated active cooperation with the largest island nation in Oceania in scientific, cultural and humanitarian spheres. https://mikluho-maclay.org/expeditions/
This story began a century and a half ago on the Maclay Coast (New Guinea Island), when the Russian scientist N. N. Miklouho-Maclay (1846-1888) collected skulls of local inhabitants during his research. The skulls themselves were of no value to the locals, and they gave them to the scientist voluntarily. Skulls were usually tied to the roofs of huts in memory of the ancestors. The lower jaw was considered especially valuable, supposedly passing on wisdom and strength from previous generations. Natives preserved it and used it as jewelry in traditional rituals. That is why all the skulls in the scientist’s collection were without the lower jaw. A number of skulls then were brought to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) in St. Petersburg, while others ended up in Sydney, Australia. Back then in the XIX century, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay researching this collection managed to prove the invalidity of racist theories that dark-skinned races were at a lower stage of development and could not be considered Homo sapiens like Europeans.
Two years before, in 2022, during a visit to the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, the Russian scientist Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr. got acquainted with the collection of his ancestor, represented by 16 skulls, some of which were named. Some of the skulls bore the names Andan, Ibor, Kake, Panake – people who once lived on the territory of the modern Rai Coast.
Later, in 2023, during an expedition to Papua New Guinea, studying the impact of globalization and the emergence of high-speed internet on the lives and traditions of the indigenous people of the Maclay Coast, Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr. visited 10 villages in Astrolabe Bay, where he met the Elders of many clans. It was these established contacts that gave hope for the success of the new 2024 project.
The research expedition on the base of the Chau Chak Wing Museum materials aimed to trace the life path of the ancestors whose skulls were collected by N. N. Miklouho-Maclay in the XIX century, and their role in the social life of the Maclay Coast inhabitants.
Preliminary work revealed that in 1877, 16 skulls became part of the Museum’s collections. They have inscriptions with the names of the ancestors and their places of residence, which have not changed the names to this day. What made the search for descendants of the people to whom the skulls belonged much easier was that the present-day Miklouho-Maclay was accepted as an Elder in the Gorendu village Clan in 2018 and became an honorary citizen of the Madang region in 2023.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum Staff considered it a difficult task to identify the artifacts; it seemed impossible for them to find the descendants. They were not sure that someone still remembered the names mentioned in the Russian scientist’s diaries, because almost a century and a half had passed, but agreed to cooperate, providing information about the collection, however, expressing skepticism. The Museum Staff did not agree to go to Papua New Guinea, referring to the recommendations of the Australian Authorities not to visit the country due to the dangerous situation because of the unrest that had occurred in early 2024 in the capital of Port Moresby.
During the expedition, Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr. had to find the descendants, to find out their stories and take interviews. In addition, the task was to gather information about the traditions of preserving skulls in the XIX century, as well as in the present day, and types of burials. It was important to gather objective information about the attitude of descendants to the fact that the remains of their relatives were stored at the Museum. During the visits to the villages Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr. necessarily informed the indigenous people about the story and goals of his ancestor to collect the skulls in the XIX century – to find evidence that the Papuan race was not some intermediate link between animal and human, as many scientists of that time believed, but was no different from Europeans.
«I was very interested in whether the locals remembered the names of their ancestors, whether they could name the villages where they lived and identify their occupations. After all, almost a century and a half had passed since they died. In the XIX century, their skulls were traditionally stored in huts, hanging under the roof, from where my great-great-grandfather took them with the consent of their descendants. I did not expect to receive a detailed answer, which, without taking minutes to recollect, was given to me by the village Elders. They immediately pointed out from which village a person with a similar name came from and who his relatives were, and told me how to find them. The field research was conducted with the organizational and financial support of the Miklouho-Maclay Foundation, which has been establishing cultural, scientific and humanitarian relations with the island nation for the past seven years.
Visiting villages on the Maclay Coast I took about 20 interviews with the descendants and their relatives. The research revealed that this was the first time the indigenous people had learned about the skulls of their ancestors. All of those interviewed expressed a desire to bring them back to their homeland for burial. They did not want the remains of their relatives to remain as exhibits.
With this in mind, I helped draft a letter addressed to the Chau Chak Wing Museum and signed by the descendants who wished to return the remains to their homeland. I submitted the video interviews to the Museum as evidence to begin the formal restitution process.
My Papua New Guinean friends authorized me in the letter to represent their interests in Australia, and I went to Sydney to finish what I had started and personally hand over the letter and video files confirming their will», says Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum Directorate positively evaluated this humanitarian initiative of the descendants and Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr., the Russian scientist, who not only preserves the legacy of the great Russian explorer, but also helps fulfill the laws and norms of modern society, which recommend returning to their homeland the exported artifacts that once served for the benefit of science.
According to the scientist Nickolay Miklouho-Maclay Jr., during the expedition a unique material was collected that allows to record the changes that have occurred over the past century and a half in the lives of the indigenous inhabitants of the Maclay Coast, starting with the ancestors whose skulls were the crux of the matter. This will make it possible to analyze the current socio-cultural processes in the life of Papua New Guineans, which will be of interest to both the scientific community and a wide range of readers interested in history, ethnography and travels. https://ivran.ru/persons/907
Interestingly, Miklouho-Maclay’s family faced a similar situation. The skull of the famous scientist and traveler of the XIX century is still stored in the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg “for the benefit of science and mankind”, as N. N. Miklouho-Maclay himself willed. He wanted his skull to serve as another proof that the indigenous inhabitants of the New Guinea Island, as well as Europeans, belonged to Homo sapiens, which was successfully done. The Museum Staff conducted a series of studies that allowed the reconstruction of Miklouho-Maclay’s face, partially hidden by a beard during his lifetime, and also revealed that he died of cancer of the jaw, not from tropical diseases as previously thought. The skull has served science and mankind well, and, according to the scientist’s relatives, the time has come to commit it to the ground.
For reference. Every second year since 1972, the United Nations and UNESCO issue a resolution on the return of cultural property to its countries of origin or its restitution, which calls on former colonial states to return home artifacts exported during the colonial period. It is this resolution that provides the basis for the return of the collection of skulls of the XIX century from The Chau Chak Wing Museum (University of Sydney) to its homeland, the Maclay Coast, Papua New Guinea.
At present, it has been agreed to deliver the collection of skulls to the Office of Madang Governor Ramsey Pariwa in order to decide on their burial, which may be arranged at Garagassi Point, where the Monument to the outstanding Russian explorer N. N. Miklouho-Maclay is installed.
More about the Miklouho-Maclay Foundation projects: https://mikluho-maclay.org/en/fondations-projects/
Miklouho-Maclay Foundation Press Office info@mikluho-maclay.ru
