Following decades of pain and anguish for the Kaurna people, the first repatriations of Aboriginal ancestral remains have been laid to rest on Country.
The South Australian Museum on Tuesday apologised to the Kaurna people for holding 4,600 Aboriginal remains over the past 165 years.
During colonisation, and for many years that followed, Aboriginal ancestors were taken from ancient burial sites to make way for new homes and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, thousands of remains were claimed by the museum and Adelaide University for research.
Head of Humanities at the South Australian Museum John Carty said Kaurna ancestors were not treated as humans, but as specimens.
"The history of museums has been about taking and distributing Aboriginal ancestors," Mr Carty said.
"But sorry can't just be words, it has to be expressed in our actions."
Those actions have seen a sacred, Kaurna-designed burial site built at the Smithfield Memorial Park in Adelaide's north.
The remains of more than 100 ancestors were reburied at the two-hectare site donated by Adelaide Cemeteries.
The South Australian Museum still holds the remains of 4,500 Aboriginal ancestors from across the country but is working with the Kaurna community to repatriate all of them.
Elder Madge Wanganeen said it was an emotional process to bring her ancestors to their rightful resting place.
"This is just a few that I took off the shelves and wrapped, we have still got heaps more to do," she said.
"They belong here, they don't need to be dug up anymore, this is their home, this is their resting place."
One of the first Kaurna men to be taken by the South Australian Museum in the 1800s was among those laid to rest on Tuesday.
Ngarrindjeri Elder Major Moogy Sumner said the reburial ceremony was about healing and moving forward together, but that followed a dark past.
"You have little skulls, you have little people that have never even seen life yet and yet they are here.
"But now, rest assured they will be looked after."
