Naming the nameless

Identifying human remains isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it’s crucial work according to Professor Warwick Duncan.

This Otago Professor of Periodontics has worked domestically and internationally across decades to help identify bodies found following natural disasters or crisis events.

Warwick says that bodies which aren’t found for a prolonged interval, are victims of traumatic events such as fire, traffic collisions and drownings, or ones that are part of large-scale mass casualty events like the Christchurch Mosque shootings and the Whakaari eruption, often require forensic odontology to be identified.

Though it’s not for everybody, it’s a hugely rewarding occupation knowing that someone has been found and can be returned to their loved ones, Warwick says.

He attributes his successful academic and military career to “good old-fashioned teamwork”.

“When you spend your life in various uniforms, you learn that every endeavour comes down to teamwork, whether it be academic research, teaching, managing my private practice and my military endeavours - it all comes down to working with the hardworking,” he says.

Warwick completed all his studies at the University of Otago, attaining a Bachelors of Dental Surgery, Masters in Periodontics, PhD in Implant Dentistry (part time over a 10-year period while lecturing and running a private practice), and achieving a Bachelor of Arts in French and German last year.

Having served with the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) for 43 years as an Army Reservist, Warwick has also worked his way up to becoming a Regimental Colonel for the Royal New Zealand Dental Corps which provides dental services to the army, navy and airforce.

He is also the honorary Dental Surgeon to the Governor-General of New Zealand, was recently appointed the forensic odontology representative on the Police National DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) team, heads the Otago and Southland forensic odontology team and has been a past president of the New Zealand Society of Forensic Odontology.

His relationship with the NZDF began when he was 18 years old and joined the army as part of the Otago University Medical Unit (OUMU) alongside starting his first degree at Otago.

After commanding medical, armoured corps and infantry units, he began incorporating his dental expertise into his military work, which eventually led to his current position.

Warwick has been deployed to places like East Timor, repatriated remains for those who died in the Malayan Emergency War (a guerrilla war fought in Malaya from 1948 to 1960), and identified victims following the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

He wasn’t aware his work had been recognised further afield until he saw something unexpected while doing a forensic exercise at an air base in Brisbane.

“The Australian police running the training shared real-life emergency photographs and I was surprised to see a photo or two of myself in the image collection.

“The reality is, disasters or national emergencies are very real in a place like New Zealand because we experience things like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

“That is why the identification of human remains is an important public service, as it’s vital to have dentists trained in forensic odontology who work with the police and coronial services to identify people who cannot be identified visually.”

Since 2020, Warwick has also run an annual course in forensic at Otago’s Department of Anatomy, which is attended by New Zealand and Australian forensic dentists, Defence Force personnel and police.

-Kōrero by the Division of Health Sciences Communications Adviser, Kelsey Swart