Case file · Sacred site
Truganini and the return of remains
Truganini, a Nuenonne woman, died in Hobart in 1876 having asked not to be dissected. Her skeleton was exhumed and displayed by the Tasmanian Museum until 1947, and cremated and scattered in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel only in 1976.
1876 CE · -42.88, 147.33 · status: official
The account
The case became a symbol of the campaign for the return of Aboriginal ancestral remains, many of which were taken for 'race science' in the nineteenth century. Repatriation continues today.
The sceptical view
She was long described as the 'last Tasmanian Aborigine', which is false: Tasmanian Aboriginal communities survived and continue.