The exhumation of Yagan's head was the result of a geophysical survey and archaeological dig at a grave site in the Everton Cemetery, Liverpool in 1997. Yagan was an aboriginal warrior who was murdered in 1833 by British colonists in Perth, due to his resistance against the colonial British settlements in Swan valley, Western Australia. The assassination of Yagan removed a remarkable obstacle from the path of expansion of the British Empire in Western Australia.