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| home | news lBritish Museum Takes Action to Quash Tasmanian Order Granting Legal Rights Over 12 Aboriginal Dead27 February 2007 - TAC - The British Natural History Museum has been accused by Legal Director Michael Mansell of “getting down and fighting dirty” in its attempt to carry out tests on Aboriginal remains without Aboriginal permission.
Legal Director Michael Mansell said, “the Museum are trying desperately to keep the courts away from judging the merit of its behaviour. Now the Museum lawyers are challenging the Tasmanian Order of Supreme Court Chief Justice Underwood before the British courts. The Case was set down for a three day hearing beginning 7th March, but now lawyers for the Museum want to quash the Orders made by the Chief Justice on Monday 5th March. We suspect the Museum is avoiding scrutiny of its actions and is using its unlimited resources to buy a victory for science over morality. We want a court to hear what these wicked people are doing to our dead. They want to avoid that.” Mr Mansell said he likened the conduct of the British scientists to the Nazi scientists. “We do not downplay the horrors the Nazis dealt the living Jews. But after the Nazi inflicted deaths the same mentality that drove Nazi scientists carrying out tests on Jewish remains seems to be driving scientific argument for testing Aboriginal remains. Scientists in London say mankind can benefit from the results of pulling teeth from the skulls of Aborigines, chiselling the bones, grinding parts of the remains, dismantling skeletons, making calibrations of the size of skulls, drilling into bone, placing parts of the dead in chemical solutions and taking X-rays and photographs. The Nazi scientists did the same tests, arguing the same values. Jewish skeletons were assembled at the Reich University of Strasbourg. One hundred and twelve Jews were slaughtered at Auschwitz to be defleshed for exhibition. Tasmanian Aboriginal dead were dug up from graves and defleshed so scientists could show mankind the benefits of gruesome testing- all, of course, against the express wishes of Aboriginal people. British scientists gathering “data” use the same word as the Nazis to desensitise the public from the horrors scientists commit on the dead. The scientists wash their hands of the murders and grave robbing that brought about the Aboriginal dead being in their care. To the scientists, these are “just bones”, not people. Our greatest surprise was that the British Government would support the scientists in this case. If the remains were the grandparents of the scientists or members of the British Government, we believe they too would feel a repugnance to testing. But they distinguish between Aboriginal dead and European dead. That is racist.” Michael Mansell Source: Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre
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its one year on from the Australian Governments controversial intervention into NT Indigenous communities
action Roll back, listen to Indigenous community voices speaking about the intervention |
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