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Receiving the skulls was an emotional moment, says Veddah Chief
The Veddah community has requested the government to provide a proper facility to preserve the ancestral remains of nine members of their community that were returned to them by the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland.
Veddah Chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo at the ceremony at the University of Edinburgh. Oshan Wedage is also in picture (third from left)
Veddah Chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo, who accepted the skulls at a ceremony held in the university told the Sunday Times on his return that he had requested both the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Archaeology to provide a facility to house the ancestral remains, which are more than 200 years old.
The nine skulls had been part of the University of Edinburgh’s anatomical collection since being acquired about a century ago.
Wannila Aththo said for the moment the remains will be kept at the museum in Dabana. “However, we hope the government can make arrangements to build a more secure facility where the remains can be better protected and preserved,” he added.
He described the moment when he received the remains as being truly emotional as it meant that members of the community were “finally coming home,” after so many years.
The story of how the skulls came to be returned to Sri Lanka began in 2017, when Archaeologist Oshan Wedage, a lecturer at the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, was conducting a joint study with Dr Patrick Roberts of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.
Mr Wedage, a PhD researcher at the Max Planck Institute, said they came into contact with the collection of remains during the course of their research. “The details of the skulls were well recorded and were clearly identified as those from the Vedda community in Sri Lanka. They had been removed during the colonial period for anatomical studies.”
He said he visited Vedda Chief Wannila Aththo when he was in Sri Lanka to obtain permission to conduct further research. The Vedda chief gave his blessing for the study but made a special request to get the remains returned if possible as it represented the lost heritage of the Veddah community, the researcher revealed.
Accordingly, letters were exchanged between the researchers and the University of Edinburgh on the possibility of repatriating the remains to Sri Lanka. The efforts culminated in the hand over ceremony attended by Wannila Aththo on November 21.
Mr Wedage said he hoped due attention would be paid to constructing a facility that will ensure conservation of the returned remains.
He said the University of Edinburgh had some 12, 000 other items such as tools that belonged to Adivasi people from Sri Lanka. “We are hopeful that we can come to some kind of arrangement in the future whereby at least some of those items too can be returned to Sri Lanka,” he said.
Bringing back his ancestors home: The veddah chief on his return at the BIA on Wednesday.
