During the recent visit to Dambana Village in end-June 2023, the Chief of the Vedda community, Uruwarige Wanniyalaettho, awarded Dr. Oshan Wedage, a Senior Lecturer of the Department of History and Archaeology (USJ), and Dr. Patrick Roberts, the Lead Scientist of the Department of Archaeology of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (Germany), with one of their highest awards, the ‘Humanitarian’ award, for their efforts in promoting and caretaking Indigenous heritage and rights, and for their ongoing collaborative work on repatriation of human remains and cultural artifacts from foreign museums.
