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Scholarly Reviews:

“[Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, 2018] The book’s title, with its reference to ‘Indigenous Dead’, rather than ‘human remains’ (or even the gentler ‘ancestral remains’) entreats the reader to consider these histories as pertaining to people with life trajectories,rather than fragmented ‘things’. This sensibility is maintained throughout the book and makes for a form of historiography that does more than compile archival evidence or make a particular argument, but draws the reader into the intricacies of this deeply human story….a superbly written and exemplary scholarly work.” Jason Gibson, Deakin University, Australian Historical Studies, April 2023, DOI: 10.1080/1031461X.2023.2190494.

“[Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, 2017] Turnbull’s work is a rigorous and lively testimony to the significance of the history of science discipline for contemporary issues of indigeneity and postcoloniality. It demonstrates that no effort at deciding on the present and future of museum collections of human remains should ignore serious historical research. Historians of science and collections, museum professionals, scientists, and activists concerned with repatriation will therefore find this book useful and valuable reading.” – Ricardo Roque, University of Lisbon, Isis Volume 111, Number 1, 2020, pp. 177-8.

 “[Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, 2017] “ a valuable contribution to the historiography of racial science and collecting in Australia….also significant in the context of the ongoing repatriation of Indigenous ancestral remains from overseas and Australian institutions and discussions to develop a National Resting Place to house unprovenanced remains under Indigenous custodianship. The book is worthwhile reading not only for historians of science and medicine, scientists and museum professionals, and those who work in the field of repatriation, but for anyone interested in the material and affective legacies concerning the colonial oppression of Australia’s Indigenous peoples.” Eugenia Pacitti, Health and History, 2020, Lancaster University, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 110-112, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5401/healthhist.22.2.0110.

“[Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, 2017] … reveals the inner workings of Australian and European museological practice in both the past and present. It also offers new insight into the historicity of current debates over the origins, ownership, and reuse ofIndigenous skeletal remains, and serves as a useful model for how activism and history can come together in a meaningful way to effect change.” Jennifer Fraser, Oberlin College, History of Anthropology Review 44 (2020), https://histanthro.org/?s=paul+turnbull

“[Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, 2017] This is the first comprehensive history that tackles both the original collecting and then the repatriation of Australian Indigenous remains from domestic and overseas institutions.In his book, Turnbull meticulously documents the collecting of Indigenous ancestral remains and challenges the idea that different ethics applied in the nineteenth century to now….At times, Turnbull’sground-breaking work reads as two separate books: one on the removal of the remains and the other on the return of remains. However, in both areas, Turnbull has made a significant contribution to both the study and practice.” Gareth Knapman, Australian National University, History Australia, 16:3, (20592-593, DOI: 10.1080/14490854.2019.1636681.

“[The Long Way Home: the Meaning and Values of Repatriation, 2010] No longer is ‘science’ seen as the universal custodian of knowledge, and no longer are museums seen as places that should retain the bits and pieces of other people’s pasts. The editors and authors situate the struggles and processes of repatriation in Australia in the context within which it exists, and it is accomplished in such a way that everyone interested in the issue should add this volume to their reference shelves.” Joe Watkins, Simon Fraser University, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18:6 (2010), pp. 657-659, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2012.695037.

“[The Long Way Home: the Meaning and Values of Repatriation, 2010] “[As evidenced by the depth of information in this volume, much has been learned about repatriation over the past 30 years….As well as for the historical information it provides, and the detail about Aboriginal history, anthropology and museums, the volume will therefore be of particular significance for those who are involved in repatriation processes – Cressida Fforde, Australian National University.

“[South Seas, 2004] This is an excellent site for students and teachers of world history interested in exploring themes of nautical history, colonial expansion, and cross-cultural encounters. The text Omai also allows students to consider the manner in which voyaging in the Pacific influenced European popular culture. Students can juxtapose the Indigenous Histories texts with the European journals and published works in Voyaging Accounts to discuss the manner in which two cultures depict similar events, and to raise the question of whether historians choose to privilege certain accounts and kinds of evidence in their analyses. Kirsten McKenzie, University of Sydney, World History Sources, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, 2006, https://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/r/346/whm.html

Principal Publications

Monographs

Turnbull, P. 2017, Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland, XIII, 428 pp. ISBN 978-3-319-51873-2. (Hardcover; softcover; ebook)

Edited Books

2010: with Pickering, M. (eds) 2010, The Long Way Home: the Meanings and Values of Repatriation of Human Remains, Berghahn Books, Oxford and New York. 270 pp. ISBN 9781845459581.

2002/2004: with Fforde, C. and Hubert, J. (eds), The Dead and their Possessions. Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice, Routledge London and New York. 360 pp. ISBN 9780415344494.

Book Chapters (since 2010)

2024.    ‘Restoring Dignity. The Ethical and Technical Challenges of Creating Digital Resources for the Repatriation of Indigenous Australian Ancestral Remains’, in Afeld, S. and Wergins, C., eds., Digitizing Heritage, Heidelberg University Press, 29-45. In Press.

2024.    ‘Born of Spiritual Obligation: Australian First Nations and the Repatriation of the Ancestral Dead’,  Foerster, L. Huegens, J., eds., The Long History of Claims for the Return of Cultural Heritage from Colonial Contexts. Berlin De Gruyter. In Press.

2024.    ‘Disciplinary Formation: the Example of Anthropology’, History of Higher Learning: the Ninteenth-Century, Bloomsbury Publishers, London. In press.

2023.    with Fforde C, Roginski A, Goodman A, Howes H, ‘Craniometry and Indigenous Repatriation’ in in Fforde, C., Howes, H., Knapman, G., Ormond-Parker, L., eds,. Science, Repatriation and Identity. Routledge, London, pp. 74-96.

2023.    with Howes H, Knapman G, Winkelmann A, Fforde C, Turnbull P, ‘Explanations of failure: Identifying racial logic, scientific authority, and notions of authenticity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’, in Fforde, C., Howes, H., Knapman, G., Ormond-Parker, L., eds,. Science, Repatriation and Identity. Routledge, London, pp. 127-143.

2023. ‘Surveying Craniometry’, in Fforde, C., Howes, H., Knapman, G., Ormond-Parker, L., eds,. Science, Repatriation and Identity. Routledge, London, 51-73.

2022. ‘Infrastructure for Historical Research in Australia’, in Ashton, P., Hamilton, P., The Australian History Industry, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 106-117.

2022. ‘Museums, Colonialism and the Indigenous Ancestral Dead’, in Fackler, G. Klotz, T. Menke, S. eds., Mumien und andere menschliche Überreste: ethische Herausforderungen für Forschung und Ausstellung, Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Wuerzburg, pp. 200-210.

2020: ‘International Repatriations of Indigenous Human Remains and Its Complexities: the Australian Experience’, Museums and Society. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v18i1.3246.

2022: with Fforde, C., Andrews, J., Halealoha Ayau, E., Grant, M. Smith, L., ‘Emotion and the Return of Ancestors: Repatriation as Affective Practice’, in  Stevens, A., The Oxford Handbook of Museum Archaeology, Oxford University Press, pp. Pages  65–C3.P122, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198847526.013.43

2022: with Fforde, C., Andrews, J., Halealoha Ayau, E., Grant, M. Smith, L. ‘Emotion, Affective Practice, and the Taking of Indigenous Ancestral Remains’, in  Stevens, A., The Oxford Handbook of Museum Archaeology, Oxford University Press, pp. 45-C.3. 122, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198847526.013.43

2021: ‘Remembering Koiki and Bonita Mabo, pioneers of Indigenous education’, in G Rodoreda and E Bischoff (ed), Mabo’s Cultural Legacy: History, Literature, Film and Cultural Practice in Contemporary Australia, Anthem Press, United Kingdom, pp. 33-45. ISBN 9781785274244.

2021: with Fforde, C. McKeown, T., Keeler, H., Ormond-Parker, L., Tapsell, P., 2021. ‘Identity in Applied Repatriation Research’, in Meloche, C., Spake, L. Nichols, K., Working with and for Ancestors: Collaboration in the Care and Study of Ancestral Remains, Routledge, London, pp. 255-267.

2020. ‘Collecting and Colonial Violence’ in Fforde, C, McKeown, CT & Keeler, H (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew, Routledge, London, pp. 452-468.

2020: with Fforde, C, Turnbull, P, Carter, N & Aranui, A.. Missionaries and the Removal, Illegal Export, and Return of Ancestral Remains: The case of Father Ernst Worms’ in Fforde, C, McKeown, CT & Keeler, H (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew, Routledge, London,

2020: with Knapman, G. Provenance research and historical sources for understanding 19th century scientific interest in Indigenous human remains: the scholarly journals and popular science media’ in Fforde, C, McKeown, CT & Keeler, H (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew, Routledge, London, pp. 564-582.

 2020: The Ethics of Repatriation: Reflections on the Australian Experience’ in Fforde, C, McKeown, CT & Keeler, H (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew, Routledge, London, pp. 927-939

2020: with Fforde, C, Aranui, A, Knapman, G., ‘Inhuman and Very Mischievous Traffic’: Early Measures to Cease the Export of Ancestral Remains from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia’ in Fforde, C, McKeown, CT & Keeler, H (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew, Routledge, London, pp. 318-399.

2020: with Aranui, A, Fforde, C, Pickering, M, Knapman, G. ‘Under The Hammer’, The Role of Auction Houses and Dealers in the Distribution of Indigenous Ancestral Remains’ in Fforde, C, McKeown, CT & Keeler, H (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew, Routledge, London, pp. 335-360.

2020: Legally Acquired? The Moral and Legal Context of Collecting Indigenous Australian Human Remains in Colonial Australia’ in Milicia, M (ed.), The Great Laboratory of Humanity, CLEUP, Padua, LP130100131 (2014-2017), pp. 235-261.

2018: ‘German-Australian Research on a Difficult Legacy: Colonial Collections of Indigenous Human Remains in German Museums and Collections’ in Nickl, B, Herrschner, I & Godziak, EM (eds.), German-Australian Encounters and Cultural Transfers: Global Dynamics in Transnational Lands, Springer Singapore,

2017: Digitally Analysing Colonial Collecting.  The »Return, Reconcile, Renew Project« In. Förster, Larissa, Edenheiser, Iris, Fründt, Sarah, Hartmann, Heike, eds. Provenienzforschung zu ethnografischen Sammlungen der Kolonialzeit Positionen in der aktuellen Debatte. Berlin: Arbeitsgruppe Museum der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie. 103-114.

2015: with Fforde, C, Ormond-Parker, L & Turnbull, P 2015, ‘Repatriation Research: Archives and the Recovery of History and Heritage Repatriation and the Law’ in Redmond-Cooper, R (ed.), Heritage, ancestry and law: principles, policies and practices in dealing with historical human remains, Institute of Art and Law, London, pp. 15-36, LP130100131 (2014-2017)

2014: ‘Margins, Mainstreams and the Mission of Digital Humanities,’ in Arthur, P & Bode, K (eds.), Advancing Digital Humanities Research, Methods, Theories, Palgrave Macmillan„ London; New York, pp. 258-273

2013: ‘Alternatives to Pay-for-View: The Case for Open Access to Historical Research and Scholarship’ in Kapitzke, C & Bertra, CB (eds.), Libr@ries: Changing Information Space and Practice, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates:, London, pp. 211-228.

2013: ‘Das indigene Australien im ersten Jahrhundert der europeanischen Invasion.’ in Hermann, M & Edelmayer, F (eds.), Australien: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 18. bis 21. Jahrhundert Wien, Verein fur Geschichte und Sozialkunde amp; Prome- dia, pp. 87-100

2010: ‘The Chief Mourner’s Costume: Religion and Political Change in the Society Islands, 1768-73 ’ in Hetherington, M & Morphy, H., eds, Discovering Cook’s Collections, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, pp. 41-57.

Refereed Journal Articles (since 2010):

2023:  With Bashar A, Nayak R, Knapman G, Fforde C. ‘An Informed Neural Network for Discovering Historical Documentation Assisting the Repatriation of Indigenous Ancestral Human Remains, Social Science Computer Review 41(6): 2293-2317

2022: ‘“’Thrown into the fossil gap”: Indigenous Australian ancestral bodily remains in the hands of early Darwinian anatomists, c. 1860-1916′, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 92, (2022) pp. 1-11. ISSN 0039-3681.

2021:  Bring the Old People Home, History of Anthropology Review, n. 45, https://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/540908, ISSN 0362-9074.

2020: ‘Amalie Dietrich and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Queensland, Zeitschrift für Australienstudien / Australian Studies Journal, 33/34, pp. 1-10.

2018: ‘Managing and mapping the history of collecting indigenous human remains’, The Australian Library Journal, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 203-212.

2015: ‘Anthropological Collecting and Frontier Violence in Colonial Queensland: A Response to ’The Blood and the Bone”, Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 17, pp. 133-58.

2015: ‘Australian Museums, Aboriginal Skeletal Remains, and the Imagining of Human Evolutionary History’, Museum & Society, vol. 13 (1), pp. 72-87.

2012, ‘The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian Brain in the Scientific Imagination, c. 1820-1880’, Somatechnics, vol. 2, pp. 171-92.

Turnbull, P 2010, ‘Historians, Computers and the World-Wide-Web’, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 131-148.

Other Peer Reviewed Publications:

2019: Pitt Rivers Museum. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2657-1

2019:  Pitt Rivers Museum. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2657-1

2014: ‘Vermillion Accord on Human Remains (1989)’, in: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2007.

Consultancy Reports:

2013: with Fforde, C., Report on Ancestral Remains returned from the Natural History Museum, Vienna in 2009 and currently in the care of KALACC Kimberley Region’s Peak Indigenous Law and Culture Centre.

2020: Report on the Provenance of Australian Ancestral Bodily Remains, Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen, For International Repatriation Program, Ministry of the Arts.

2022: with Knapman, G., Fforde, Report on the Provenance of Australian Ancestral Bodily Remains from Queensland and the Torres Strait, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, For International Repatriation Program, Ministry of the Arts.

2023: with Eggers, S. and Berners, M. Report for Ministry of the Arts, Austrian Federal Government on Hawaiian Ancestral Bodily Remains in Austrian Federal Collections.

2024: Report for Queensland South Islander Council on South Sea Islander Ancestral Bodily Remains in the Queensland Museum.

Research Based Online Digital Projects (since 2010)

2020- Ongoing: Informatics and Infrastructure support for Moore, C. The Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia, 1893-1978, https://www.solomonencyclopaedia.net

2019- Ongoing: Return, Reconcile, Renew: Online Resources for Repatriation, https://returnreconcilerenew.info/ .  ARC LIEF Funded.

2014-5: PaperMiner V.1, 2014-5. See https://academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/llc/ fqy084/5303316?redirectedFrom=fulltext  UQ Faculty of Arts Innovation Grant.

2004 – Ongoing: South Seas: Pacific Voyaging and Cross-cultural Encounters 1760-1832, version 1.0 http://southseas.nla.gov.au     ARC Linkage funded: online since 2004); Version 2.0 (online since 2022) https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/

Invited Seminars, Lectures and Keynote Addresses at International Scholarly Meetings (since 2010):

 

     

Keynote Speaker, Colloque ‘Provenance Globale’, l’Université de Berne, le Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, le Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel et le Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, 2 February 2021.

     

Keynote Speaker, Digitising Heritage Symposium, International Academic Forum, University of Heidelberg,0 September – 1 October 2019.

     

Invited Seminar, Mobility & Humanities symposium, Il Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Geografiche e dell’Antichità – DiSSGeA, University of Padua, 26 March 2019.

     

Keynote Speaker, 14th Biennial Hungarian Society for the Study of English (USSE) Conference, Pannonia University, Veszprém, Hungary, 31 January – 2 February 2019.

     

Keynote Speaker “What is a Document?” A Symposium on Documentation, Records and Evidence, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, 8th and 9th November 2018.

     

Keynote Speaker ‘Mabo’s Cultural Legacy: The Mabo Decision, 25 Years On’ Symposium of the European Studies Association, University of Stuttgart, 16-18 November 2017.

     

Invited Speaker, Provenienzforschung zu ethnologischen Sammlungen der Kolonialzeit Workshop, Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich, 7-8 April 2017.

     

Plenary Speaker, The Great Laboratory of Humanity: Conference on the Collection, Patrimony and the Repatriation of Human Remains, University of Padua, 30 May – 1 June, 2016.

     

Invited Public Lecture, Morphomata International Center for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne, 6 July 2015.