Displaying Asru: A Conversation

An invitation to reflect

For the past two months, we’ve been inviting visitors to share their thoughts and feelings about the future display of Asru, a woman who lived in Egypt around 2,700 years ago.

Asru’s mummified body was unwrapped in Manchester exactly 200 years ago and she is still on display now in your Museum’s Egypt and Sudan Gallery.

This process is not just about changing a label or a case; it’s about rethinking how we care for those who have been entrusted to us, and how we share their stories with respect and sensitivity.

It fits within the wider context of our work to decolonise and Indigenise the collections we care for – being honest about the Museum’s links to the British Empire and the harm caused by collecting practices that relied on a system of violence and oppression.

How we best care for ancestral remains is a critical issue, and one we feel must be addressed with transparency, taking into account the perspectives of communities and visitors.

Who was Asru?

Asru lived in southern Egypt around 2,700 years ago. When she died, the transformative rituals of mummification were performed on her body, which was carefully wrapped in layers of linen cloth and buried into finely decorated wooden coffins. Asru’s mummified body was unwrapped at the Manchester Natural History Society in April 1825.

She has regularly been on display at Manchester Museum for the two centuries since, offering visitors an intimate but not necessarily critical or contextualised view of ancient Egyptian funerary practices. In that time, we have also changed as a museum and are thinking more about colonial histories, representation, and how we care for people, past and present, and our relationships with them.

Why this consultation, and why now?

The decision to launch a consultation is grounded in our responsibility to treat ancestral remains with dignity, and to engage meaningfully with communities about their care. The urgency for attention and sensitivity around Asru’s display is something that has come through in conversations with staff, colleagues, partners and visitors.

This also reflects a wider shift in museums globally, with increasing acknowledgement that the display of ancestral remains (particularly those collected in colonial contexts) can be deeply personal, and potentially distressing.

We want to start a conversation about what care looks like now, asking whether we should continue to display the body of Asru. The consultation aims to bring a wide range of voices into this discussion.

What we’re hearing so far

This is the first time we have directly asked our audiences about the future of Asru. The consultation has been live for two months, and to date, we’ve received 862 responses posted in our gallery post-box. This is already emerging as a rich source of information, that will help inform Asru’s future care and help us to more carefully navigate the complexities around how we deal with the dead and how we communicate these stories with our audiences.

Some people have shared an obvious passion for Egyptology, a strong connection to Egypt, and a sense of fascination or respect for Asru. We’re also hearing reflections about learning and connecting experiences in the Museum with narratives of history and science. Others have expressed discomfort or surprise at seeing an unwrapped body on public display, and strong feelings of empathy and human connections. A recurring theme is the importance of understanding, agency, and respect.

These responses reflect the kinds of tensions that have become increasingly evident in the conversations that our Visitor Team have been having on the galleries in recent years.

We are only part way into this consultation process, but we are grateful for the honesty and thoughtfulness of those who have participated so far.

What happens next?

This consultation will remain open until the end of August, and we encourage anyone who hasn’t yet shared their thoughts to do so. You can leave your comments at the Museum in the post-box or complete your response online or head over to Instagram or Facebook and join the conversation.

The consultation process is also accompanied by wider engagement, providing multiple platforms for us to do our thinking in public. The first of these saw our Curator of Egypt and Sudan, Dr Campbell Price in conversation with Dr Hannah Priest, author of Unburied: The true story of Hannah Beswick, the Manchester Mummy. The conversation touched on social and political history, the Victorian turn to the macabre, and changing attitudes to the display of human remains. It also brought a poignant reflection on death and dying, mummies and museums. There will be further events in the autumn.

Ultimately, any decisions made about Asru’s future will be rooted in care – care for Asru, for our visitors and their diverse perspectives, and for our responsibility as a museum to our communities and relationships, as we navigate how best to serve the people of the past, while imagining better futures.

Share your thoughts

Find out more about Asru and the public consultation