Indigenous artefacts held in a Canadian museum will return to Queensland communities in a historic move towards healing.
The state government reached an agreement with the Museum of Vancouver to begin the process of repatriating Indigenous items to the Queensland Museum.
There are between six and 12 items to be returned.
They include animal skins, message sticks, woomeras, a rainforest sword, fighting and throwing clubs and Secret and Sacred objects.
After the items arrive back in Australia, they will be cared for by the Queensland Museum for a short period before being returned to communities.
"The repatriation of Ancestral Remains, Secret Sacred objects and significant cultural heritage to country, community is a basic human right and a crucial healing and reconciliation journey of Queensland," Treaty Minister Leanne Enoch told budget estimates on Wednesday.
Several other international museums are also in talks with the Queensland government to return sacred items including London's Natural History Museum and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.
Ms Enoch said the Sheffield Museum in the UK had proactively reached out to begin the repatriation process.
The Queensland Museum cares for 1394 Ancestral Remains and Secret Sacred objects.
The museum's CEO Dr Jim Thompson said the organisation was working with communities to facilitate the return of the sacred items currently in care.
"Repatriation of Ancestral Remains, Secret Sacred objects and artefacts is increasingly seen as a critical step in the process of reconciliation with First Nations peoples around the world," Queensland Museum First Nations Director Dr Bianca Beetson said.
The government has committed $4.58 million over five years to the museum to undergo repatriation efforts.
In the past three decades, the Queensland Museum has repatriated 200 Ancestral Remains and sacred items to communities to address its past wrongs in collecting them.
