Return of Aboriginal Remains

A museum yesterday said sorry and handed back four skulls collected from Australia's Aborigine people by colonial explorers more than a century ago.

The skulls, which have been stored at Manchester museum, were handed over in a ceremony which included an antidote to any curses Manchester may have earned as a result of its sacrilege.

They will now return to Australia for burial. Tradition maintains that until they are returned to the earth with proper ceremony, ancestors will not be allowed to pass to the spirit world.

"The return of the remains of the ancestors of living indigenous Australians is an act that recognizes our common humanity," said the museum's director, Tristram Besterman.