Australian Aborigines plan to ask Prince William for help finding and returning the head of an indigenous warrior who was killed and decapitated by British soldiers more than 200 years ago.

Prince William will visit Australia for three days next week, after an official trip to New Zealand. It will be the first time the Prince has set foot in Australia since visiting as a baby with his parents in 1983.

Elder Michael Mundine of the Aboriginal Housing Company said he believed the Prince “has his mother’s heart” and would understand his request to recover the remains of the warrior Pemulwuy.

Pemulwuy was shot dead in 1802, 14 years after the arrival of the First Fleet, and his head was sent to England in a glass jar.

Many believe the head is still in England with the remains of an estimated 3000 indigenous people whose body parts were bottled in the name of scientific research. However, the exact location of the jar and its contents remains a mystery.

When it first arrived in England, the skull was reportedly kept at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and later may have been moved to the Natural History Museum. However, the museum has no record of it.