| repatriation news |
| The long road home 28 June 2009 - The Observer UK - A century after colonial body snatchers robbed the burial grounds of the Aborigines, British-held remains are finally being repatriated. But how does it feel to find the bones of your revered ancestors in the dusty archives of a Scottish museum? |
Notes on Aboriginal remains on eBay |
| Ancient bones going home to Oz 5 February 2009 - PRE-HISTORIC bones from an aboriginal woman found during a Cheshire house clearance are to be returned to Australia |
| UK to return more Aboriginal remains 7 January 2009 - Another set of Aboriginal remains held at a British museum for almost a century are to be returned to Australia. Two skulls and two thigh bones kept by the Booth Museum of Natural History, in Brighton, East Sussex, are expected to be repatriated within days. |
| Britain to return Aboriginal skulls 17 December 2008 - Three Aboriginal skulls, gathering dust on a museum shelf after being taken to Britain by collectors in the 1860s, are finally to be repatriated and returned to their people for reburial. |
| Berlin's Charite to Repatriate Aboriginal Australian Skulls 14 November 2008 - Deutshe Welle - A museum at Germany's Charite hospital and medical school has said it would return the skulls of 18 Aboriginal Australians taken to Germany more than 100 years ago. |
A completely permitted view of Aboriginal Australia |
Aboriginal remains will be sent home |
| Now locals can paddle their own canoe 8 September 2008 - FOR five years, the Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer has been drawn back to the stories of a remote Arnhem Land community. |
| Plea to send bones back 27 August 2008 - Traditional owners from a remote Arnhem Land community in the Northern Territory want one of the largest and most respected museums in the world to return their ancestors' remains. |
| First Aboriginal remains to be returned from U.S. 26 July 2008 - EcoDiario Spain - A group of Aboriginal elders on Saturday left Australia for the United States to bring home the remains of 33 ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute, the first Aboriginal remains to be returned from the United States. |
| Picking the bones out of our imperial past 8 July 2008 - The Scotsman - IT IS but a tiny example of the skeletons of colonialism, but to the Aboriginal Ngarrindjeri tribe, its safe return is priceless. |
| Remains of the day 8 July 2008 - BBC - I've been to a couple of repatriation ceremonies in the past few years. I saw the return of Toi Moko - human skulls gathered by collectors in the 19th century - to Maori people and also to Mer Islanders. |
| Aboriginal skulls to return home from UK 9 April 2008 - The skulls of six Aborigines that have been gathering dust in Scotland since the 19th century will be returned to Australia within weeks. |
| Swedish uni returns Aboriginal remains 20 February 2008 - Lund University in southern Sweden handed over the remains of two Aboriginals to Australia at a special ceremony. |
| Museum of Scotland to return Aboriginal and Maori remains 17 January 2008 - The Scotsman - A TASMANIAN skull and a collection of Maori remains that have been in the archives of the Museum of Scotland for more than 100 years are to be returned to Australia and New Zealand. |
| Sweden returns remains of 10 Aborigines to Australia 22 October 2007 - International Herald Tribune France - Swedish museum officials on Monday handed over the remains of 10 Aborigines to an Australian delegation, nearly 100 years after they were brought to Sweden for racial studies. |
| Aboriginal remains are to be sent home 16 October 2007 - THE remains of three Aboriginees are to be returned to Australia by Liverpool museum chiefs. |
| Tasmanians seek return of ancient Aboriginal remains 8 May 2007 - CAMBRIDGE University is facing calls to hand back ancient skeletal remains. |
| Decision due on Aboriginal remains in UK 8 May 2007 - A decision on whether the remains of 13 Aborigines will be returned to Australia from England is due to be made on Wednesday. |
| Queen in fight for bones 29 April 2007 - THE Queen has been dragged into an embarrassing row with the Federal Government over the return of Aboriginal remains to Australia. |
| Aborigines are able to collect human remains now scientists at Natural History Museum have finished testing them 27 April 2007 - Tasmanian Aborigines are jubilant at the return today of the human remains of four Aborigines from the Natural History Museum, London. download press release as PDF |
| Australia Calls for German Museums to Give Back Human Bones 1 April 2007 - Deutsche Welle - It might have been a British colony, but that didn't stop Germans in the 19th and 20th centuries from collecting human remains in Australia. |
| High cost of bitter battle of the bones 11 March 2007 - Britain is no stranger to accusations of cultural plundering. Its museums, often magnificent attractions in themselves, display relics from all over the world. But some collections are subject to fierce battles for reclamation by their countries of origin. |
| Natural History Museum agrees to Aboriginal remains talks 2 March 2007 - UKTV - Mediation talks will take place between the Natural History Museum and Aboriginal leaders over repatriation of remains. |
| Aborigines Welcome offer by British Museum to Mediate Dispute about Aboriginal Dead 1 March 2007 - TAC Media Release - The offer from the British Natural History Museum to now mediate the dispute over Aboriginal remains has been cautiously welcomed, Legal Director Michael Mansell announced today. |
| Britsh Museum Takes Action to Quash Tasmanian Order Granting Legal Rights Over 12 Aboriginal Dead. 27 February 2007 - TAC - The British Natural History Museum has been accused by Legal Director Michael Mansell of “getting down and fighting dirty” in its attempt to carry out tests on Aboriginal remains without Aboriginal permission. (Take Action) |
| Aboriginal remains case boon to lawyers 25 February 2007 - The legal battle to repatriate the remains of 17 Aboriginals from Britain to Tasmania has turned into a massive cash cow for lawyers, an indigenous leader says. |
| Fight for Aboriginal ancestors goes on 24 February 2007 - The Guardian (UK) - The Natural History museum is set to spend another £100,000 fighting its legal battle over the bones of Australian Aborigines whose descendants accuse the museum of "scientific racism" for wanting to take DNA samples |
Aboriginal leaders to hold protest at London's natural history museum 11.30am Friday 23 February 2007 |
London Court Case over Fate of Aboriginal Remains Adjourned |
| Aboriginal Leader Heads to London to Bring 17 Dead Home. 20 February 2007 - (TAC) - media release - Aboriginal Lands Council of Tasmania head, Clyde Mansell, will leave Tasmania at 1pm today on a mission to bring the remains of 17 Tasmanian Aboriginals home for burial. (Take Action) |
| Aboriginal leaders head to UK for court ruling on remains 20 February 2007 - A delegation of Aboriginal leaders is heading to London today for a landmark court ruling over ancestral human remains. |
Australian Government agrees to fund Aboriginal Remains case in England |
| Aboriginal remains tests halted 13 February 2007 - (BBC, UK) - London's Natural History Museum has pledged not to conduct intrusive tests on Tasmanian aboriginals' remains. |
| Legal Battle over Aboriginal human remains will affect all world collections 12 February 2007 - The pending legal case to be dealt with by the English High Court on Monday morning, London time, will determine whether the several hundred Aboriginal remains in European institutions are to remain at the mercy of scientists or must be accorded dignity in accordance with Aboriginal custom, Legal Director Michael Mansell said today. |
| Legal action over remains 12 Febrary 2007 - TASMANIAN Aborigines will today begin legal action in Britain's High Court to recover ancestral remains. |
| Uni returns Aboriginal bones 31 January 2007 - INDIGINEOUS Affairs Minister Mal Brough has applauded a decision by the University College London to return to Australia all Aboriginal remains in its collection. Mr Brough said the anatomy department had initially requested to do further research on the remains, but decided against it after asked not to by the Australian Government. |
| Returning the stolen generation 25 November 2006 - Despite the warmth of the Tasmanian sun high overhead, the wide, windswept valley had a desolate air. Or was this merely fanciful – an involuntary response to a tranquil landscape made bleak by my knowledge of its chilling history? |
| Natural History Museum returns Aboriginal remains to Australia 17 November 2006 - (24HourMuseum UK) - The Natural History Museum in London is to repatriate the remains of 17 Tasmanian Aboriginal people to the Australian Government. |
| UK museum urged to negotiate over Aboriginal remains 21 October 2006 - A British museum expert says he wants to "hang his head in shame" because the Britain's Natural History Museum is refusing to negotiate with the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. |
| Australian government officials frustrate the
repatriation of Tasmanian Aboriginal remains 12 September 2006 - The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre is outraged at the interference by Australian government officials in the repatriation of Aboriginal human remains from English museums. |
| Aboriginal remains to be returned 7 September 2006 - BBC News (UK) - The remains of three Aborigines are to be returned to Australia from a Tyneside museum. It follows a request for repatriation by the Australian government. |
| Tasmanian Aborigines Travel to London to Collect Ancestral Remains from the British Museum 1 September 2006 - TAC media release -Two Tasmanian Aborigines will arrive in London this weekend, as delegates to accept ancestral remains which are to be returned by the British Museum. This will take place in a private ceremony on the afternoon of Monday 4 September. The delegates will be available by prior arrangement for media comment before and after the event. |
| Aboriginal remains to return home 31 May 2006 - (BBC UK) - The remains of six Aborigines held in Glasgow's museums collection will be returned to Australia. The move follows a request from the Australian Government to repatriate indigenous Australian remains. |
| British Museum decides to return two Tasmanian cremation ash bundles 24 March 2006 - British Museum Media Release - The passing of the Human Tissue Act in 2005 enabled the Trustees of the British Museum and other national museums to transfer human remains out of their collections. |
| Aborigines 'not consulted on remains' 6 April 2006 - The federal government is morally disgraceful for bringing back Aboriginal remains from England without consulting indigenous communities, an activist says. |
| Repatriation of Indigenous remains from Britain 28 March 2006 - Media Release - Remains of Indigenous Australians are being repatriated from British museums within months following an historic agreement between the two governments. Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said six British museums have agreed to return remains since last year. |
| British Museum to return Aboriginal remains 25 March 2006 - The Guardian (UK) - The British Museum said yesterday that it would return the cremated ashes of Australian Aborigines, more than 160 years after they were taken. |
| Historic Victory for Tasmanian Aborigines 24 March 2006 - Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Media Release - In an historic victory for Tasmanian Aborigines, the Trustees of the British Museum yesterday decided to return to Tasmania the first Aboriginal human remains to be repatriated from a public museum in Britain. |
| DCMS publishes guidelines on care of human remains 6 October 2005 - Museums Association (UK) - Guidelines are now available for museums in England and Wales that hold human remains. The publication of the guidelines also heralds a change in law allowing national museums to deaccession human remains. |
| Yorta Yorta remains on the way home 12 May 2005 - The ancestral remains of four Aboriginal people held by a Sydney University museum for 50 years are headed back to their traditional lands. |
| A bone to pick with museums 16 January 2005 - Returning collections of human remains to their home countries may sound noble, but science will suffer as a result. |
| Aboriginal skulls to return home 13 January - BBC (UK) - Representatives from the Australian High Commission are in Devon to take back a collection of Aboriginal skulls held at a museum since the 1870s. The four skulls were dug up by British explorers in South Australia and given to Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum for its ethnography collection. |
| Museums face court if they keep remains 13 January 2005 - Aboriginal groups were on the brink of taking legal action against some of Britain's great museums which could cost them huge and historic international collections unless they return the remains of generations of Aborigines to Australia. |
| Artefact stoush risks future loans 22 October 2004 - International loans to Australian museums and galleries are at risk unless three disputed indigenous artefacts are returned to Britain, says former National Museum of Australia director Dawn Casey. |
| Signs of a shift over bones of contention 9 October 2004 - Nearly 100 years after Swedish scientists raided Aboriginal burial sites and smuggled out the skeletons saying they were kangaroo bones, indigenous men fought back tears as they brought the remains back to Australia. |
| Aborigine Remains to Return Home 30 September 2004 - PA News -The Scotsman - The skeletal remains of 15 Aborigines will be handed over today to be returned to Australia and reburied in their ancestral homeland – nearly 90 years after they were smuggled out by a Swedish zoologist and put on display in a museum. |
| Appeal: Help Australian Aborigines keep their etchings 6 September 2004 - The Dja Dja Wurrung people from the west of the Australian state of Victoria have secured an emergency order preventing the return of three historic artefacts to Britain. |
| No resolution of Aboriginal ownership 18 August 2004 - Museum Victoria has been unable to secure a meeting with the British institutions that lent disputed Aboriginal artefacts to the Melbourne Museum for its 150th anniversary this year. |
| A colonial hangover 5 August 2004 - If there were any prizes for good, honourable white guys in the emotional, guilt-ridden debate about the return of Aboriginal remains, then the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University would have a fair claim to a podium position. The museum, home to one of the top six anthropological collections in the world, was among the first to hand back material — five skulls and a penis in mid-1990 — to Australia. It later attempted to return an Aboriginal woman collected by D. J Fitzgibbon and Dr Guy L'Estrange 160 kilometres south of Cooktown in 1914. |
| Don't return Aboriginal 'stolen goods': lobby group 31 July 2004 - Museum Victoria came under increased pressure yesterday when prominent lobby group Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation demanded that three Aboriginal artefacts on loan from British institutions be allowed to stay in Australia. |
| Australian Government Welcomes Latest Milestone for the Repatriation of Indigenous Human Remains from the United Kingdom 30 July 2004 - Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, today welcomed the release by the UK Government of a consultation paper, Care of Historic Human Remains, saying it was a significant step in the repatriation of Australian Indigenous human remains held in public museums in the UK. |
| Ancestral remains to 'go home' 29 July 2004 - Manchester Museum PR - A collection of more than 100 sets of human remains stored at Manchester Museum could be "repatriated" under a government scheme. Museum staff are reviewing a number of artefacts and exhibits as part of a nationwide drive to return culturally-sensitive pieces to their countries of origin. |
| Panel may rule on museum remains 28 July 2004 - An advisory panel could be set up to adjudicate in cases where museums refuse to repatriate human remains to their country of origin |
| Crown Jewels Down Under 27 July 2004 - A battle has begun between the British Museum Goliath and an unlikely underdog opponent comprising the Dja Dja Wurrung Native Title Group. Australian Aboriginal artifacts, on loan from the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne have been seized by the representatives of the Aboriginal tribe that originally owned them. |
| The Cradle of Civilisation 26 July 2004 - Visitors to the British Museum are often amazed that a small collection of islands off the coast of mainland Europe should have spawned so many artefacts of world renown. |
| Museums Association backs licensing body for human remains 6 July 2004 - The Museums Association (UK) - The Museums Association has published a response to the Church Archaeology Human Remains Working Group Report, which recommends a licensing body to oversee the use of human remains by museums… |
Private Collection of Aboriginal Ancestral Remains Repatriated |
| Burying the evidence 24 November 2003 - Spiked! (UK) - Over the past decade repatriation departments have been set up in museums across America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to return human remains to their places of origin. While research on human remains can reveal information about historic patterns of migration, lifestyle and disease - a substantial amount of energy, time and money has instead been committed to burying the evidence. |
| Aborigines back UK bones panel 5 November 2003 - BBC - Australian Aborigines have welcomed a plan to set up a panel to oversee the repatriation of human remains held by British museums and universities. But they say a wider inquiry is also needed to establish just how the body parts came into the possession of the UK institutions in the first place. |
| Aboriginal remains to be returned from Swedish
museums 22 October 2003 - Aboriginal remains and thousands of sacred objects held in Swedish museums could be returned to Australia as early as next year. The Swedish government has offered to return the remains and objects, including 13 sets of human remains held in the Swedish Ethnography Museum. |
| Aboriginal skulls may return home 16 September 2003 - BBC - A Devon museum has been asked to return four Aboriginal skulls which have been part of its collection for more than 100 years. Tribal leaders from Australia have called on the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter to let them take the remains of their ancestors back home when they visit the city next month. |
| Return of Aboriginal remains 30 July 2003 - The Guardian (UK) - A museum yesterday said sorry and handed back four skulls collected from Australia's Aborigine people by colonial explorers more than a century ago. The skulls, which have been stored at Manchester museum, were handed over in a ceremony which included an antidote to any curses Manchester may have earned as a result of its sacrilege. • Manchester Museum returns Aboriginal remains to Australia - The Independent (UK) • Museum hands back Aboriginal skulls - Daily Mirror (UK) • Museum returns skulls to Oz - The Manchester News (UK) • Aborigine skulls handed back to their people - The Daily Telegraph (UK) • Museum returns Aboriginal skulls - BBC News • Aboriginal human remains to return to Australia - The Voice (UK) |
| Aborigines clash with scientists over bones: Vital evidence 'will be lost for ever' if ancestral remains are returned 1 June 2003 - The Observer (UK) - A furious row has broken out between British scientists and Australian Aboriginal rights activists over human remains being used as research specimens. |
| Letter to the Editor of The Independent by Professor Paul Turnbull 20 May 2003 - The Independent (UK) - Sir: Professor Stringer claims that his colleagues in Australia cannot study human remains because of laws stipulating the reburial and destruction of Aboriginal bones ("Alarm raised over return of human remains", 16 May 2003). This is not an accurate summary of the situation here in Australia. |
| Scientists miss the point on human remains repatriation 16 May 2003 - ATSIC - A London newspaper report describing the potential return of Aboriginal human remains as "folly" is a pathetic attempt to justify past practices that were common in Australia in the 1800s. |
| Alarm raised over return of human remains 16 May 2003 - The Independent (UK) - Leading scientists said yesterday that their research would become practically impossible if the Government sanctioned the return of human bones and other museum exhibits to their countries of origin. |
| Research fear over return of human bones 16 May 2003 - Financial Times (UK) - Plans to return human remains from museums and study collections to their ancestral owners would be a disaster for research in fields from forensic medicine to anthropology, scientists warned yesterday. |
| Folly to give back ancient bones, say scientists 16 May 2003 - The Daily Telegraph (UK) - Handing over Britain's extensive museum collections of ancient human bones and fossils to aborigines for burial or cremation would be "folly", leading scientists said yesterday. |
Sad history of Aboriginal remains nears its conclusion |
| Dead Aborigines returned home 9 May 2003 - As the remains of 300 Ngarrindjeri people were returned to their lands yesterday, a century after they were first taken, Aboriginal community leaders believed there were “thousands” more ancestors still to be handed back from museums around the world. |
| Government objects to tests on remains 10 April 2003 - Australia will formally protest to Britain over its museums' ongoing experimentation on the remains of indigenous Australians. |
Plundered Aboriginal remains go home |
Bring Indigenous remains home: elders |
Return of ancestral remains from London heralds many more returns |
| Is it altruism or the fear of losing their marbles? 28 December 2002 - "The race is a very degraded one and ... even the coarse traders and cattle-ranchers make no irregular unions with their women so the race remains pure." - Dr Arthur Gedge, circa 1900. |
| Science or dignity? It remains to be seen 26 December 2002 - The skulls and bones of two Northern Territory Aborigines, now "trophies" in a British museum, are at the centre of a controversial inquiry, reports Peter Fray. Deep inside London's Natural History Museum are the skulls and leg bones of two Aboriginal men whose lives were considered so morally "degraded" that in 1900 they were hunted down and killed by a white expedition. |
| Return of remains at risk 18 December 2002 - Britain's long-running dispute with Greece over the return of the Elgin Marbles sculptures threatens to stall Australian efforts to repatriate thousands of Aboriginal remains from leading British museums. |
| Battle of the bones 12 December 2002 - Spiked! (UK) - Human bones, pieces of skin and bits of hair tucked away in museum display cases and vaults have become the subject of ferocious political battles. Many of these human remains were collected in the nineteenth century, when Western colonial expansion was at its height and there was a lust for scientific enquiry. Today, there are demands that these bones be returned to indigenous groups for reburial. |
| Top museums unite to fight Aboriginal claims 11 December 2002 - Several museums in Europe and the United States have issued a landmark declaration opposing the wholesale repatriation of cultural artefacts seized during imperial rule or by means now considered unethical. |
| Museums unite against return of imperial 'loot' 8 December 2002 - Forty of the world's top museums have issued a landmark statement firmly opposing the repatriation of precious artefacts seized in colonial times. |
| Statement on the value of the universal museum December 2002 - British Museum - Eighteen of the world's great museums and galleries have signed a statement supporting the idea of the universal museum. The statement was drafted at their last meeting in Munich last October, and presented to the British Museum for publication. |
| The skeletons of colonialism may get a decent burial at last 10 November 2002 - The Independent - Body parts trundled back from all corners of the globe and displayed like mere ornaments are among the exhibits most popular with visitors to British collections. |
| Pioneering journey home for Truganini 30 May 2002 - In February this year, Norman Palmer, the chairman of a House of Commons working group inquiring into human remains held by British institutions, made a trip to Tasmania's Bruny Island. James Morrison reports on moves to give other cultures' ancestors a more dignified end. |
| Remains of Truganini coming home after 130 years 29 May 2002 - Remains of Tasmanian Aborigine Truganini were returned to her community by a British museum yesterday, almost 130 years after her death. |
| Britain to hand back remains 25 May 2002 - The Independent (UK) - Two indigenous Tasmanians will leave for London today to collect the remains of several Aborigines from the colonial era held by the Royal College of Surgeons. |
| Aboriginal remains in England 3 January 2002 - Report on Aboriginal remains in England. In London, the Royal English College of Surgeons has decided to return its collection of Aboriginal human remains to Australia. |
| British museums to return 'long lost' Aboriginal art 26 August 2001 - Some of Britain's biggest museums are to return hundreds of artefacts to their original owners as part of a Government initiative on disputed collections. |
Aboriginal islanders reunited with their 'stolen' history |
| Outback Spirits to Return Home 26 November 2000 - The spirits of hundreds of Aborigines may be finally laid to rest after a decision by Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, to return their bones to Australia. |
| Prime Ministerial Joint Statement on Aboriginal Remains 5 July 2000 -10 Downing Street (UK) - The Australian and British governments agree to increase efforts to repatriate human remains to Australian indigenous communities..... |
| Britain pressed to return Aboriginal bones 5 July 2000 - Guardian UK - Australia's prime minister, John Howard, yesterday took the opportunity of a visit to Downing Street to press Tony Blair for help in persuading British museums and universities to repatriate the remains of more than 2,000 aborigines. |
| Museum defended over bodies claim 19 March 1998 - A leading Australian academic has defended museums - among them the Natural History Museum in London - from the charge that they hold the bones of aborigines "murdered to order" for scientists in the last century. |
| Museum to return tribal treasures to Aboriginals 6 November 1997 - Aboriginal treasures, removed from Australia more than a century ago, will be returned this week after being discovered in a city museum. |
| Return Of Tasmanian Aboriginal Remains 1 December 1997 - The University of Edinburgh - media release - The University handed over the limited Tasmanian Aboriginal hair samples from its anatomy collection to a delegation from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre at a ceremony held in Old College on Monday 1 December. |
| Museum to return tribal treasures to Aboriginals 6 November 1997 - Aboriginal treasures, removed from Australia more than a century ago, will be returned this week after being discovered in a city museum. |
| repatriation: information |
DCMS publishes guidelines on care of human remains |
| Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the National Assembly for Wales: Care of Historic Human Remains (PDF 466kb) |
| Church Archaeology and Human Remains Working Group: Consultation Document On Guidelines On The Treatment Of Christian Burials In Archaeological Projects - Church of England (450kb PDF) |
| Repatriation Developments in the UK Campaigning by indigenous groups led to various developments within the UK museum community in the 1990s. The Museum’s Association undertook two research projects to determine its members’ views about repatriation. In 1998, the Museums and Galleries Commission in association with the Museums Association and the National Museums Directors’ Conference commissioned a set of guidelines to assist museum practitioners dealing with repatriation requests. |
| Prime Ministerial Joint Statement on Aboriginal Remains 5 July 2000 -10 Downing Street (UK) - The Australian and British governments agree to increase efforts to repatriate human remains to Australian indigenous communities |
| UK House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Select Committe's Seventh Report Cultural Property: Return and Illicit Trade (2000) |
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