The University of Otago School of Biomedical Sciences anatomy professor has won $30,000, which will allow her to travel to the University of California (Berkeley) for three months later this year to conduct research on the bioethics of using indigenous human skeletal collections in New Zealand and the United States.
She said there were ethical concerns about the curation and use of these collections because of the circumstances in which they were acquired.
Often, they were sourced from marginalised communities, and tensions over such collections have been felt in countries such as the United States and New Zealand in which there was a history of colonisation and mistreatment of black and indigenous people.
"There’s been a lot of work done lately on the ethics of looking at indigenous remains, and also in the context of thinking about consent around modern human remains and the use of those.
"But we’ve got these so-called legacy collections that are held by museums and they’ve been incorporated into the museums’ collections historically, and they’ve kind of fallen into a grey area.
"They don’t fall under the Human Tissues Act as such, because we don’t necessarily have informed consent; but they’re not indigenous remains either.
"Some of these remains, it’s known that they’ve been collected and traded through means that we wouldn’t necessarily think are ethical today.
"So I want to talk to people about ways forward for working with them and teaching with them.
"They’re an amazing teaching resource, but I think we need to look a little bit more into the bioethics of their use."
She hoped to work with the Ministry of Education to contribute to some of the ministry’s guidelines around the ethical use of human remains for teaching at museums, universities and schools.
Prof Halcrow said she was honoured and excited to win the prestigious award.
"It’s really important because it gives you a good leg to stand on when you’re going overseas and doing this kind of work.
"You’re recognised as being a scholar, which can give you more opportunities for collaborations in the United States."
