Scores of human remains are to be handed back to their descendants in Australia by London’s Natural History Museum.

The museum will return 138 samples dating back to the mid-1800s – including bone and soft tissue – to the people of the Torres Strait Islands, which lie between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Demands for the return of samples that are sometimes of huge importance to science has triggered a number of conflicts in previous years. But Richard Lane, director of science at the museum, says that a new collaborative approach to negotiations with representatives of the islands’ native peoples has enabled them to find a way forward.

Although Lane notes that the samples could yield useful information in future from new techniques, returning them does not necessarily mean they will be lost to science and the good relationship now in place could increase opportunities for researchers to have – for example – genetic information from living relatives.

“I think we’ve gained access to further research collaboration and [the chance of] doing better science,” he says.

Native people asking for their ancestors to be returned and scientists wishing to work on those remains should not view their needs as diametrically opposed, he says, and the latter should take more care to explain to the former what they could learn of their distant relatives via modern techniques.

Although only 19 of the 138 individuals could be conclusively traced back to the Torres Islands via documentary evidence the museum says there is “reasonable certainty” that the other 119 come from either one of the islands, from southern PNG or from north Australia. Talks with the Torres Strait islanders will continue to discuss whether additional testing – such as DNA analysis – may be desirable to further determine their origin in more detail, as well as the details of what will happen to the remains. The details of the return have yet to be worked out.

Ned David, a spokesperson for the repatriation working group of the island’s traditional owners, says the return is a cause of great celebration.

“I’ve only just started sharing the news with [the islands’] elders and a lot of them are absolutely speechless,” he told Nature. David also praised the museum for its approach to the return of the remains.

“This is an example for everyone,” he said.

Image: map via Wikipedia under GNU Free Documentation License.