Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains

Joanne L. Wright; Sally Wasef; Tim H. Heupink; Michael C. Westaway; Simon Rasmussen; Colin Pardoe; Gudju Gudju Fourmile; Michael Young; Trish Johnson; Joan Slade; Roy Kennedy; Patsy Winch; Mary Pappin; Tapij Wales; William “badger” Bates; Sharnie Hamilton; Neville Whyman; Sheila Van Holst Pellekaan; Peter J. Mcallister; Paul S.c. Taçon; Darren Curnoe; Ruiqiang Li; Craig Millar; Sankar Subramanian; Eske Willerslev; Anna-sapfo Malaspinas; Martin Sikora; David M. Lambert

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau5064

Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains

Joanne L. Wright, Sally Wasef, Tim H. Heupink, Michael C. Westaway, Simon Rasmussen, Colin Pardoe, Gudju Gudju Fourmile, Michael Young, Trish Johnson, Joan Slade, Roy Kennedy, Patsy Winch, Mary Pappin, Tapij Wales, William “badger” Bates, Sharnie Hamilton, Neville Whyman, Sheila Van Holst Pellekaan, Peter J. Mcallister, Paul S.c. TaçonDarren Curnoe, Ruiqiang Li, Craig Millar, Sankar Subramanian, Eske Willerslev, Anna-sapfo Malaspinas, Martin Sikora, David M. Lambert

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Abstract

After European colonization, the ancestral remains of Indigenous people were often collected for scientific research or display in museum collections. For many decades, Indigenous people, including Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, have fought for their return. However, many of these remains have no recorded provenance, making their repatriation very difficult or impossible. To determine whether DNA-based methods could resolve this important problem, we sequenced 10 nuclear genomes and 27 mitogenomes from ancient pre-European Aboriginal Australians (up to 1540 years before the present) of known provenance and compared them to 100 high-coverage contemporary Aboriginal Australian genomes, also of known provenance. We report substantial ancient population structure showing strong genetic affinities between ancient and contemporary Aboriginal Australian individuals from the same geographic location. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of successfully identifying the origins of unprovenanced ancestral remains using genomic methods.

Original language	English
Article number	eaau5064
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	4
Issue number	12
Number of pages	13
ISSN	2375-2548
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau5064
Publication status	Published - 19 Dec 2018

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Wright, J. L., Wasef, S., Heupink, T. H., Westaway, M. C., Rasmussen, S., Pardoe, C., Fourmile, G. G., Young, M., Johnson, T., Slade, J., Kennedy, R., Winch, P., Pappin, M., Wales, T., Bates, W. ., Hamilton, S., Whyman, N., Van Holst Pellekaan, S., Mcallister, P. J., ... Lambert, D. M. (2018). Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Science Advances, 4(12), Article eaau5064. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau5064

Wright, JL, Wasef, S, Heupink, TH, Westaway, MC, Rasmussen, S, Pardoe, C, Fourmile, GG, Young, M, Johnson, T, Slade, J, Kennedy, R, Winch, P, Pappin, M, Wales, T, Bates, W, Hamilton, S, Whyman, N, Van Holst Pellekaan, S, Mcallister, PJ, Taçon, PSC, Curnoe, D, Li, R, Millar, C, Subramanian, S, Willerslev, E, Malaspinas, A, Sikora, M & Lambert, DM 2018, 'Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains', Science Advances, vol. 4, no. 12, eaau5064. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau5064

@article{a33e003b41f841f5aec9a01a3a26b417,

title = "Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains",

abstract = "After European colonization, the ancestral remains of Indigenous people were often collected for scientific research or display in museum collections. For many decades, Indigenous people, including Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, have fought for their return. However, many of these remains have no recorded provenance, making their repatriation very difficult or impossible. To determine whether DNA-based methods could resolve this important problem, we sequenced 10 nuclear genomes and 27 mitogenomes from ancient pre-European Aboriginal Australians (up to 1540 years before the present) of known provenance and compared them to 100 high-coverage contemporary Aboriginal Australian genomes, also of known provenance. We report substantial ancient population structure showing strong genetic affinities between ancient and contemporary Aboriginal Australian individuals from the same geographic location. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of successfully identifying the origins of unprovenanced ancestral remains using genomic methods.",

author = "Wright, {Joanne L.} and Sally Wasef and Heupink, {Tim H.} and Westaway, {Michael C.} and Simon Rasmussen and Colin Pardoe and Fourmile, {Gudju Gudju} and Michael Young and Trish Johnson and Joan Slade and Roy Kennedy and Patsy Winch and Mary Pappin and Tapij Wales and Bates, {William “badger”} and Sharnie Hamilton and Neville Whyman and {Van Holst Pellekaan}, Sheila and Mcallister, {Peter J.} and Ta{\c c}on, {Paul S.c.} and Darren Curnoe and Ruiqiang Li and Craig Millar and Sankar Subramanian and Eske Willerslev and Anna-sapfo Malaspinas and Martin Sikora and Lambert, {David M.}",

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AU - Wright, Joanne L.

AU - Wasef, Sally

AU - Heupink, Tim H.

AU - Westaway, Michael C.

AU - Rasmussen, Simon

AU - Pardoe, Colin

AU - Fourmile, Gudju Gudju

AU - Young, Michael

AU - Johnson, Trish

AU - Slade, Joan

AU - Kennedy, Roy

AU - Winch, Patsy

AU - Pappin, Mary

AU - Wales, Tapij

AU - Bates, William “badger”

AU - Hamilton, Sharnie

AU - Whyman, Neville

AU - Van Holst Pellekaan, Sheila

AU - Mcallister, Peter J.

AU - Taçon, Paul S.c.

AU - Curnoe, Darren

AU - Li, Ruiqiang

AU - Millar, Craig

AU - Subramanian, Sankar

AU - Willerslev, Eske

AU - Malaspinas, Anna-sapfo

AU - Sikora, Martin

AU - Lambert, David M.

PY - 2018/12/19

Y1 - 2018/12/19

N2 - After European colonization, the ancestral remains of Indigenous people were often collected for scientific research or display in museum collections. For many decades, Indigenous people, including Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, have fought for their return. However, many of these remains have no recorded provenance, making their repatriation very difficult or impossible. To determine whether DNA-based methods could resolve this important problem, we sequenced 10 nuclear genomes and 27 mitogenomes from ancient pre-European Aboriginal Australians (up to 1540 years before the present) of known provenance and compared them to 100 high-coverage contemporary Aboriginal Australian genomes, also of known provenance. We report substantial ancient population structure showing strong genetic affinities between ancient and contemporary Aboriginal Australian individuals from the same geographic location. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of successfully identifying the origins of unprovenanced ancestral remains using genomic methods.

AB - After European colonization, the ancestral remains of Indigenous people were often collected for scientific research or display in museum collections. For many decades, Indigenous people, including Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, have fought for their return. However, many of these remains have no recorded provenance, making their repatriation very difficult or impossible. To determine whether DNA-based methods could resolve this important problem, we sequenced 10 nuclear genomes and 27 mitogenomes from ancient pre-European Aboriginal Australians (up to 1540 years before the present) of known provenance and compared them to 100 high-coverage contemporary Aboriginal Australian genomes, also of known provenance. We report substantial ancient population structure showing strong genetic affinities between ancient and contemporary Aboriginal Australian individuals from the same geographic location. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of successfully identifying the origins of unprovenanced ancestral remains using genomic methods.

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DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aau5064

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2375-2548

VL - 4

JO - Science Advances

JF - Science Advances

IS - 12

M1 - eaau5064

ER -

Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains

Abstract

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