The repatriation of indigenous ancestral remains in Australia and Japan: from national to global efforts

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To understand the issue of the repatriation of the ancestral remains of Indigenous peoples requires a correlated understanding of the historical background of why such remains were taken without permission or stolen for research purposes. Anthropological, archaeological and anatomical research using these remains was international in scope. Therefore, current repatriation movements around the world to return Indigenous ancestral remains are inseparably linked to global efforts to decolonize. This paper focuses on the repatriation movements in Australia and Japan, seeking to clarify how Indigenous remains were collected or stolen by European or Japanese researchers, through a comparative study of cases in Australia and Japan. It argues that the repatriation movement in the latter lags far behind the global trend.