Tribe refuses to accept ‘cursed’ ritual skulls after museum offers to return them A tribe in Papua New Guinea has refused to accept a series of ‘cursed’ ritual skulls made by cannibal headhunters after a Dutch museum offered to return them to make amends for colonialism.
One such museum, the Missiemuseum in Steyt, Netherlands, owned a number of the sacred skulls, and recently opened talks to return the objects to the Iatmul people in an attempt to make amends for their colonial past.
The ritual skulls, crafted by the Iatmul people who live along the Sepik River, were initially used in ceremonial practices and incorporated human skulls into their base.
They were collected by German Roman Catholic missionaries at the beginning of the 20th century, who regarded the skulls of the headhunting tribes as the epitome of native ‘savagery’ and justification for ‘civilising’ the tribes through colonial intervention.
‘I would ask them whether they would like to have them back,’ Voogt said, describing his visit.
