The remains of 18 Indigenous people have been returned to Australia by two British museums, part of the laborious and painstaking effort to recover thousands of ancestors stolen from their traditional lands who now lie in more than 20 countries around the world.
At midnight Australia time on Wednesday, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum returned 17 ancestors to the custodianship of the federal government, which will hold them while further research is undertaken “to determine the traditional custodians”. Another was given to the custodianship of the south-east First Nations people of South Australia, who were represented by Robyn Campbell.
Campbell said First Nations people “continued to suffer from the atrocities and impact of colonisation”.
“The theft of our ancestors taken from country is a particular injustice. As First Nations people we never ceded our sovereignty nor gave consent to the removal of our old peoples’ remains,” she said.
“We have been made sick and worried about what happened to our old people, always knowing our relationship and connection to country is the foundation of our culture and ways of living.
“Our ways determine the importance of always remaining connected to country, so the fact of our ancestors’ removal to an alien museum environment has been a source of great distress and shame.”
After the colonisation of Australia, anthropologists, doctors, scientists and others took both ancestors and sacred objects from communities. They were put in museums both in Australia and overseas. They were traded, sold, experimented on, displayed as “curiosities”, and sometimes stored or forgotten.
Their descendants want them back.
More than 1,660 ancestors have been returned to Australia since 1990. More than 1,280 of those have been from the UK, where the government has been working with private holders and collecting institutions for more than 30 years.
So far, other returns have come from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the US, and from institutions in Europe, including in Germany and Sweden.
The Australian federal government says the total number of ancestors held overseas is unknown, but that it is aware there may be “over 1,500 ancestors held by collecting institutions and private holders in more than 20 countries”.
Uncle Moogy Sumner is a Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna elder from South Australia, who has been trying for years to bring ancestral remains home along with Bob Weatherall, a Kamilaroi man from southern Queensland. They have travelled around the world searching museums and scientific institutions, and negotiating with officials.
Sumner and Weatherall think there could be many more to be recovered than the official government figure suggests.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Sumner said.
“We have to stand up for our rights, talk to these people and say … we want to take them home. Take them home, on country.
“Some of them have spent well over 100 years down there in basements.”
The removal of the remains has been called the “first stolen generation”, and their absence continues to inflict emotional and spiritual trauma.
“There will be no spiritual peace until Aboriginal people have been returned,” Weatherall said.
At the Purrumpa conference, held on Kaurna land in South Australia in the first week of November, Sumner said First Nations people wanted truth telling, and for the ancestors’ return. He wanted to train up more people to find them.
In SA, ancestral remains that were kept in museums are being buried in stages at a specially developed memorial park. There are other repatriation plans afoot around the country.
Weatherall is not happy with the proposed “resting place” in Canberra. He wants them home to their traditional lands, and he describes the theft of the ancestors as “cultural terrorism and cultural genocide”.
He wants First Nations people in full control of cultural property, and a national inquiry into where and who they are.
He says the rights of the dead include the right to the return of their remains and sacred objects to their communities, the right to receive their customary last rites, and their right to have their remains left in peace, as dictated by customs.
“The history of European colonisation in Australia includes the violation of these rights,” he said.
The federal government runs a repatriation program, which comes under the arts minister, Tony Burke, because he is in charge of cultural institutions.
Burke said bringing ancestors home was “some of the most important and respectful work a government can do”, and conceded there was still “so much to do”.
“It recognises the spiritual connection between the past and present, as well as an ongoing connection to country,” he said. “Returning First Nation ancestors to their traditional homelands is an important step towards healing and reconciliation.
“This government is committed to securing the return of all ancestors held in public and private collections overseas.”
The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, said the government continued to advocate for “the unconditional return of ancestors and cultural heritage material held in overseas collections”.
“This is some of the most important work we can undertake as part of the reconciliation and truth-telling process,” she said.
Campbell said this week’s handover was a first step. Returning someone to the right burial place was symbolic of the restoration of country, she said.
“The return of our old people is to fulfil our cultural obligations and we hope will contribute to our recovery as First Nations peoples.”
