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Pioneering journey home for Truganini

EDITORIAL

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. The island was the ancestral home of Truganini, the so-called last Tasmanian Aborigine. Truganini died in Hobart in 1876; her skeleton was displayed in the Tasmanian Museum until 1947. In 1976 her remains were cremated, and her ashes were scattered on Bruny Island's waters. But the matter did not end there.

Trugannini

Last year Britain's College of Surgeons revealed that it held samples of Truganini's skin and hair in its collection. Under Tasmanian law - the first of its kind in the world - indigenous Tasmanian remains must be returned to Tasmania. Rodney Dillon, a Tasmanian member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, invited Professor Palmer to Bruny Island to see Truganini's final resting place. Professor Palmer said of his visit: "I was told that it would heighten my appreciation of what led to these tragic circumstances. And it is right. I approach this place with much humility. I gain a sense of the spirits and the ancestry here. If only we all had a sense of belonging like this."

The samples of Truganini's skin and hair are now back in Tasmania, along with several bones from unidentified Aboriginal people. They will be buried or cremated after attempts are made to identify their ancestors. Last year a shell necklace attributed to Truganini was found in a southern England museum; it too has gone back to Tasmania. These returns represent a significant shift in human understanding. They are an important, if belated, gesture of respect to those Tasmanians for whom Truganini was not an anthropological curiosity but an ancestor.

Truganini was not the last Tasmanian Aborigine, but the story of her life and death has been immensely important; as a symbol of the plight of the indigenous Tasmanians and as an example of the insensitivity of museum practices. Last year the senior curator of anthropology at the South Australian Museum, Philip Jones, identified and recorded about 2000 19th and early 20th century Aboriginal artefacts held in nine European museums. He estimates that overseas collections hold about 40,000 Aboriginal artefacts. The collections are significant because they contain a greater proportion of objects from the early days of colonisation, whereas the Australian collections were mostly gathered after 1880, when Aboriginal populations had diminished dramatically. Some of the objects stored overseas may represent the only surviving record of a tribal group. A complete inventory of these objects does not exist and should be compiled. The database would contribute to our understanding of this lost heritage, and be an important step towards the eventual repatriation of those pieces held offshore.

Source: The Age

From Britain, remains of the darkest days

By Peter Fray, Herald Correspondent in London

May 29 2002 - Remains of Truganini, a symbolic figure among colonial-era Aborigines, have been returned to her black descendants by a British museum, almost 130 years after she died.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England gave the remains - skin and hair samples - with several other bones from unidentified Aboriginal people to Tasmanian activists Jeanette James and Tony Brown.

Mrs James said the remains were probably from four or five people, as well as Truganini, and would be either buried or cremated in Tasmania once attempts were made to identify their descendants.

"This is very important," she said. "It enables us to put our ancestors to rest, to bring them home where they were born and belong."

The college is the first English institution to return Aboriginal bones and samples, which were mainly collected during the 19th century for scientific research, especially into evolution.

A House of Commons working group, which includes the college's president, the Australian-born Sir Peter Morris, is investigating British laws on human remains. Laws prevent museums from returning bones and other body parts deemed part of the national collection.

Truganini died in Hobart in 1876, aged about 73. She was described as the last Tasmanian Aborigine to succumb to generations of colonial illness, persecution, murder and dispossession. Her skeleton was on display in the Tasmanian Museum until 1947.

A century after her death she was cremated and her ashes scattered off the southern Tasmania coast.

During a visit to London late last year, Aboriginal leader Rodney Dillon discovered the Royal College of Surgeons had her hair and skin.

Aboriginal people say they have been lobbying British museums for 25 years for the return of their ancestors.

Mrs James and Mr Brown will appear before the House of Commons working group in the next few days.

Mrs James said of the campaign:

"We come from a moral and emotional view. And the universities and museums come from a scientific view. [But] they are very reasonable and willing to talk."

Their visit coincides with renewed pressure on the British Government and the British Museum from Greece to return the Elgin Marbles in time for the Olympics in 2004.

The British Government has sought to make a distinction between the laying to rest of humans and the return of priceless artefacts, such as the marbles.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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