home | news l

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.

The remains are believed to be from the Kimberley, in Western Australia, and possibly also Queensland.

ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon today said he hoped the offer would encourage more than 26 other countries holding indigenous remains to return them to Australia.

"Sweden is the first European nation ever to make an offer to Aboriginal people to repatriate the remains of their ancestors," Mr Dillon said in a statement.

"ATSIC would strongly encourage all other nations in possession of Aboriginal remains to follow Sweden's lead."

Mr Dillon said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS), would assist Swedish public museums to identify thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander objects which are of a sacred nature or classified as "grave goods."

Indigenous groups have been lobbying for the return of more than 5,000 ancestral remains from the United Kingdom.

The remains were taken during the 19th century for scientific research and as curios.

Source: AAP

related links :

• Danish Photos to British archive
  19 December 2002- Copenhagen Post - A remarkable bequest was made in London yesterday as veteran Danish travel writer and photographer Jens Bjerre donated nearly 1000 of his prized photographs to the archive of the Royal Geographical Society.
• Prime Ministerial Joint Statement on Aboriginal Remains
  July 5, 2000 -10 Downing Street (UK) - The Australian and British governments agree to increase efforts to repatriate human remains to Australian indigenous communities.....
• UK Government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport: Human Remains Working Group The advisory group set up by the Minister for the Arts to consider the possible return of human remains from publicly funded museums and galleries in the UK.
• Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
  
• 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.
• 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.
• Etnografiska Museet i Stockholm, Sverige / National Museum of Ethnography
  

Further information: repatriation issues page - includes news index and external links

|| click to go to the top of this page