The skulls of four warriors killed nearly 150 years ago were handed over to an indigenous community in Taiwan by the University of Edinburgh on Friday, a gesture hailed as an “important step in transitional justice.”
It is believed that the skulls were taken as war trophies by Japanese soldiers who invaded the south of the island in 1874 and fought against the Paiwan people before being given to the Scottish university in 1907.
According to the island’s Indigenous Peoples’ Council, it is the first time that ancestral remains have been returned to an indigenous community on Taiwan.
This restitution is “rich in historical significance and represents an important step in transitional justice for Indigenous peoples,” the council commented in a press release.
For his part, Icyang Parod, Minister of the Council, said he hopes the community will find comfort and healing in this repatriation.
According to the Scottish University, these skulls were those of four warriors from the Mudan community, inhabited primarily by members of the Paiwan community, the second largest in Taiwan.
After the War of 1874, they were returned to Japan by an American naval officer.
This return came at the request of the Indigenous Peoples’ Council of Taiwan, which requested it in November 2021. Her application was finally accepted the following July.