Officials working to bring home remains of Maura, 18-year-old Igorot in Smithsonian collection

The Philippine Embassy in the US is working with the National Museum of the Philippines to bring home an 18-year-old Igorot's brain specimen that has been part of a decades-old collection preserved at the Smithsonian.

“We actually are waiting for word from our National Museum…We are going to find a way to be able to bring back those remains,” Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez told GMA Integrated News' JP Soriano.

“Because if they’re Filipinos, they’re obviously—we should bury them here. And we’ll find a way to be able to do that. Hopefully we could resolve it in the quickest way possible,” Romualdez said.

In a recent episode of “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho,” an investigative report of The Washington Post said the brain specimen—belonging to an Igorot girl named Maura—is part of the Racial Brain Collection of the US National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, which houses a collection of brain specimens from more than 255 indigenous people around the world.

The Racial Brain Collection was set up by Czech anthropologist and museum curator Ales Hrdlicka, "who believed that White people were superior and collected body parts to further now-debunked theories about anatomical differences between races," the Washington Post said.

At least 23 of the specimens were brains or parts of the brains of Filipinos, and one of these is believed to be Maura's.

The Smithsonian has expressed its intention to return some of the preserved brains.

St. Louis World's Fair

Maura is believed to be one of the Filipino tribespeople who were part of the the St. Louis World's Fair, a months-long international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904.

The fair featured newly discovered technology, modern transportation, an amusement park, rides, and what it called the Forest Park, which featured 10,000 people from different parts of the world who were displayed as attractions for the so-called "World's Largest Human Zoo."

Among those featured in the exhibit were Filipinos in a setup called Igorrote Village, a place for "head-hunters" and "dog-eaters."

There is no clear documentation of Maura’s identity or residence in Benguet. However, it is possible that she was one of the 25 natives from the Kakanaey tribe encouraged to come to America from Suyoc, a town in Mankayan.

Among the individuals displayed, 70 came from Bontoc Province, 25 were from a community in Suyoc, and others were from Abra. There were also Negritos, Moros from Mindanao, and people from the Visayas. — BM, GMA Integrated News