Indigenous Remains Repatriated By The Netherlands To Caribbean Island Of St. Eustatius - The World News -

The remains, which include several complete skeletons and cranial fragments belonging to the Island Carib (Kalinago) and Arawak (Taíno) peoples, were formally handed over to local officials during a solemn ceremony at the St. Eustatius Historical Foundation Museum. The repatriation marks the first such transfer of ancestral remains specifically to Statia—a 8.1-square-mile special municipality of the Netherlands—though the Dutch government has returned artifacts to other Caribbean nations in recent years.

“Science cannot come at the expense of humanity,” Gumbs responded. “Our ancestors were not research subjects. They were people.” The remains, which include several complete skeletons and

The remains were originally excavated from the Golden Rock and Smoke Alley archaeological sites on the island during the mid-20th century. They were subsequently transported to Leiden, Netherlands, where they remained for decades in the vaults of the National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden). For years, they were studied, cataloged, and displayed—often without the consent or knowledge of Statia’s living Indigenous descendants and local community. “Science cannot come at the expense of humanity,”