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Return of Aboriginal remains

David Ward

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.

They will now return to Australia for burial. Tradition maintains that until they are returned to the earth with proper ceremony, ancestors will not be allowed to pass to the spirit world.

"The return of the remains of the ancestors of living indigenous Australians is an act that recognises our common humanity," said the museum's director, Tristram Besterman.

Source: The Guardian (UK)

Manchester Museum returns Aboriginal remains to Australia

By Terri Judd

30 July 2003 - The Independent (UK) -Eleven years after originally promised, a British museum yesterday "ended the torment" of their rightful custodians by handing back four Australian Aboriginal skulls.

At a time of growing tension over the ownership of international artefacts, Manchester Museum returned the skulls to a delegation of tribal elders who plan to return them to their traditional homelands in the state of Victoria for burial in a sacred place. Such remains, brought to this country as gruesome souvenirs, for experimental purposes or as scientific curios by early white settlers, have become a burning political issue in Australia.

Aborigines believe the spirits of these people cannot rest until their bones are laid in their native ground, nor can they be free if the remains are separated. With contentious collections across Britain, the Government gave an undertaking to increase efforts to repatriate such artefacts.

Among the most controversial are the Elgin Marbles, sought by the Greek government, and the Rosetta Stone, which the Egyptians yesterday requested be returned on loan to be displayed at a new wing of the Cairo Museum.

Tristram Besterman, director of Manchester Museum, said the act of returning the Aboriginal skulls recognised "our common humanity". "These remains were removed during the colonial era ... Their removal, more than a century ago, was carried out without the permission of the Aboriginal nations ... in violation of the laws and beliefs of the indigenous Australian people," he said. "None the less, by returning these remains now, we hope to contribute to ending the sense of outrage and dispossession felt by Australian Aborigines today."

Yesterday's ceremony follows an agreement between the University of Manchester and the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (Faira).

Bob Weatherall, of Faira, said: "This will end the practice of scientific investigations and maintaining Aboriginal ancestors in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in museums." Major Sumner, a traditional custodian from the Ngarrindjeri nation in South Australia, added: "The torment is ended, we now put an end to the torment."

Last year the Royal College of Surgeons' museum became the first English institution to hand over Aboriginal remains. Among them were said to be hair and skin from Truganini, a woman hailed as the last Tasmanian Aborigine. She died in 1876.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Australia's main organisation for indigenous people, has identified more than 50 institutions in 18 countries that acknowledged holding remains and artefacts in their collections.

Ken Colbung, an elder of the Nyoongar Bibbulman tribe and a justice of the peace in Western Australia, travelled to Liverpool six years ago to demand the return of the head of Yagan - one of the community's greatest heroes. Yagan was considered an outstanding leader of the Tondarup Ballaruk clan who was the first to speak up for his people's rights and tried to reconcile whites and blacks in the 1830s. He was shot by a farm worker and his severed head was smoked, pickled and exhibited before being buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Liverpool.

The Home Office initially refused exhumation, after objections from relatives of stillborn babies in the same public grave, sonar technology was eventually used to do so without disturbing other bodies.

Mr Colbung said: "It is Aboriginal belief that because of Yagan's skeletal remains are incomplete, his spirit is earthbound. The uniting of his head and torso will immediately set his spirit free to continue its eternal journey."

The row over the 2,200-year-old Rosetta Stone flared again yesterday when Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, insisted the British Museum should send it back. But the museum refused a request to loan it to Cairo for the 2005 opening of a new wing of its museum.

A statement said: "To loan such pieces would result in our disappointing the five million visitors who come to the museum every year." Mr Hawass said the museum should "not be selfish". The stone unlocks the mystery of hieroglyphics, but the Egyptian museum only has a reproduction.

STILL IN BRITISH HANDS

The British Museum has consistently refused to return the Rosetta Stone, right, to Egypt. The 2,200-year-old stone, which unlocked the mysteries of hieroglyphics, was discovered by French soldiers in 1799 before being handed to the English upon surrender. It has been in the London collection since 1802.

The museum has also long resisted Greek attempts to regain the Parthenon Marbles, right, the 2,500-year-old frieze depicting an Athenian procession that Britain acquired in 1811 from Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Source:The Independent (UK)

Museum hands back Aboriginal skulls

By Jeremy Lovell

29 July 2003 - LONDON (Reuters) - A museum in Manchester has handed a delegation of tribal elders four Aboriginal skulls collected more than 100 years ago in Australia.

The skulls, which have been gathering dust in the vaults of Manchester Museum, were handed over to a group from the Foundation for Aboriginal and Island Research Action (FAIRA) for transport back to the Australian state of Victoria.

"This is a good day for the Aboriginal people of Australia. Their ancestors are coming home at last -- the healing can finally begin," delegation leader Bob Weatherall told Reuters by telephone after the ceremony.

The origin of the skulls is vague, with only two of the four known to have come from somewhere in Victoria State. The other two are simply described as from Australia.

The return of the skulls marks the latest stage in a worldwide campaign by indigenous peoples to get back body parts plundered from graves and mortuary slabs in the late 19th and early 20th century.

"It is clear these skulls were stolen from their final resting places as part of attempts by whites to prove that they were superior to the indigenous peoples," Weatherall said.

Manchester Museum agreed in 1992 to hand back the skulls, but has taken 11 years to make the handover.

"By returning these remains now we hope to contribute to ending the sense of outrage and dispossession felt by Australian Aborigines today," museum director Tristram Besterman told Reuters. "It is an expression of our common humanity."

The skulls will be flown to Sydney on Saturday and then on to Canberra where they will be ceremonially reburied.

Aborigines believe the spirits of their people cannot rest in peace until their bones are laid in their native ground.

FAIRA has already persuaded the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh Medical School and London's Horniman Museum to hand over their specimens, but faces an uphill struggle persuading other institutions to part with their collections.

Weatherall said there were some 5,000 Aboriginal remains in Britain that needed to be returned. Thousands more are held by academic institutions across Europe and the United States.

Source: Daily Mirror (UK)

Museum returns skulls to Oz

Deborah Haile

29 July 2003 - Manchester News (UK) - For more than 100 years four skulls have remained in dusty boxes in the vaults of Manchester Museum.

But later today they will be given back to the people who treasure them.

The skulls were taken from the Aboriginal people of Australia by colonial explorers who thought nothing of bringing back human remains alongside examples of flora and fauna.

But today museum bosses were handing back the remains so they can be returned to their homelands and given their sacred burial rites.

Until they are returned to the earth with proper ceremony, Aboriginal leaders say the spirits of their ancestors will not be allowed to pass to the spirit world.

Museum director Tristram Besterman said: "The return of the remains of the ancestors of living indigenous Australians is an act that recognises our common humanity."

A delegation of Aboriginal elders was taking possession of the remains at the museum.

Major Sumner - from the Ngarrindjeri nation in South Australia - was conducting a traditional 30-minute Aboriginal smoke and dance ceremony.

Later another ceremony to cleanse the museum and the city of Manchester of any curses was planned.

Source:The Manchester News (UK)

Aborigine skulls handed back to their people

29 July 2003 - Daily Telegraph (UK) - A British museum has handed over four skulls of Australian Aborigines, collected 100 years ago, to representatives of communities to which they belong.

The delegation of Aboriginal elders took possession of the remains of their ancestors at a handover ceremony at The Manchester Museum. The ceremony follows an agreement drawn up between the University of Manchester and The Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (Faira) for the repatriation of the skulls, removed from Australia during the colonial era.

Bob Weatherall, from Faira, said: "This will end the practice of scientific investigations and maintaining Aboriginal ancestors in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in museums."

Tristram Besterman, Director of The Manchester Museum, said the act of returning the skulls recognised "our common humanity".

The elders are to take the the remains to their traditional homelands in the State of Victoria and to a sacred keeping place in the Australian Capital Territory.

Source: The Daily Telegraph (UK)

Museum returns Aboriginal skulls

29 July 2003 - BBC News - Manchester Museum in England handed over the remains to a delegation of Aborigines so they can be buried in Australia.

A worldwide campaign is under way to return human remains taken from graves and mortuary slabs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The return was agreed by the University of Manchester and the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA).

Bob Weatherall, from FAIRA, said: "This will end the practice of scientific investigations and maintaining Aboriginal ancestors in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in museums."

Manchester Museum agreed in 1992 to hand back the skulls, but it has taken 11 years to organise.

Tristram Besterman, director of the Manchester Museum, said: "These remains were removed during the colonial era at a time of great inequality of power.

"Their removal more than a century ago was carried out without the permission of the Aboriginal nations, and have been held in the Manchester Museum ever since, in violation of the laws and beliefs of indigenous Australian people. "

The skulls will be flown to Sydney and then on to Canberra where they will be ceremonially buried.

Aborigines believe the spirits of their people cannot rest in peace until their bones are laid in their native ground.

Major Sumner, from the Ngarrindjeri nation in South Australia, said: "The torment is ended, we now put an end to the torment.

"We are taking them home to our traditional lands."

Source: BBC News

Aboriginal human remains to return to Australia

29 July 2003 - The Voice (UK) - A delegation of Aboriginal elders will take possession of the remains of their ancestors and accompany them back to Australia "...by returning these remains now, we hope to contribute to ending the sense of outrage and dispossession felt by Australian Aborigines today, and trust that we can begin to build a more rewarding relationship... " Mr. Tristram Besterman - Director, Manchester Museum

At 11am on Tuesday 29 July 2003, the Manchester Museum handed over four skulls of Australian Aborigines, which were collected 100 years ago, back into the safekeeping of representatives of Aboriginal communities to which they properly belong.

A delegation of Aboriginal elders took possession of the remains of their ancestors and accompany them back to Australia, following an agreement between The Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) and the University of Manchester for their repatriation. The ancestors will return to their traditional homelands in the State of Victoria and to a sacred keeping place in the Australian Capital Territory.

Mr. Bob Weatherall, from FAIRA said: "This will end the practice of scientific investigations and maintaining Aboriginal ancestors in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in museums".

Mr Weatherall welcomes the decision taken by The University of Manchester, which, along with the Royal College of Surgeons and the Horniman Museum in London, demonstrates an enlightened attitude to the rights of indigenous peoples.

Mr. Tristram Besterman, Director of Manchester Museum said: "The return of the remains of the ancestors of living indigenous Australians is an act that recognises our common humanity. These remains were removed during the colonial era at a time of great inequality of power. Their removal more than a century ago was carried out without the permission of the Aboriginal nations, and have been held in the Manchester Museum ever since, in violation of the laws and beliefs of indigenous Australian people. The Manchester Museum cannot atone for the wrongs of our own forebears at a time when different values prevailed. Nonetheless, by returning these remains now, we hope to contribute to ending the sense of outrage and dispossession felt by Australian Aborigines today, and trust that we can begin to build a more rewarding relationship based on mutual understanding and respect between our peoples for the future".

Major Sumner, a traditional custodian from the Ngarrindjeri nation in South Australia stated that the torment had now ended. At the hand-over ceremony in Manchester, Mr Sumner will welcome the four directions according to the traditions of his people.

FAIRA was established in 1977 as a community-run Aboriginal organisation specialising in research into the rights of Indigenous Peoples. FAIRA promotes an Indigenous perspective on key issues affecting the Aboriginal people and has represented Aboriginal interests regarding rights to land, culture and heritage.

Source: The Voice / Black Britain

Aborigines picket UK museum

1 August 2003 - Aboriginal elders began picketing a British museum which has refused to hand back the skulls, skins and organs of 450 of their ancestors.

The delegation, angered by the prestigious Museum of Natural History's refusal to grant them access to the collection of Aboriginal remains, gathered outside the museum in west London to put their case to visitors entering the building.

Wearing traditional ceremonial paint, Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner began the picket with a smoking ceremony, both to alert the spirits of the ancestors and to protect museum visitors.

"It's a sad time but it's a powerful time," ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon said.

"This is about them not even being willing to negotiate with us."

Bob Weatherall, of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, said the museum had refused to acknowledge that the remains, gathered during Australia's colonial period, had been taken out of the country illegally.

"They are in possession of stolen property," Weatherall said.

"These are our ancestors. They are human beings. The museum has no rights, never had any rights, never will have any rights under Aboriginal law or any decent humanity, to continue to hang on to the remains of people's ancestors for the benefit of their own prestige within their own society."

The remains, collected between 80 and 150 years ago, are being stored in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in the museum, and are used for scientific experiments.

Some of the remains come from murdered Aborigines, while others were dug up from graves or stolen from morgues and hospitals.

"It's important for the spirits of our people to pass into the spirit world and they can't do that here in this land," Sumner said.

"We have to take them back to their own land where their people can take them home and go through a ceremony with them in their own way."

The delegation met with a human rights lawyer to discuss a possible legal challenge.

Dillon will ask the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) to fund the challenge at the next meeting of commissioners in three weeks' time.

Manchester Museum this week handed over four skulls to be returned to Victoria.

Source: AAP

Aborigines appeal to Blair for return of remains

1 August 2003 - Australian Aborigines today took their plea for the return of ancestral remains held by British museums to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A delegation from the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) was due to deliver a letter to 10 Downing St later today, thanking Blair for his past support and asking him for more help.

"We are thanking him but we also want him to help us speed things up," FAIRA coordinator Les Malezer said.

"We are asking him to renew and emphasise his commitment to the return of Aboriginal human remains to traditional custodians."

Blair was at the prime minister's country retreat Chequers today but a spokeswoman said a Downing St official would receive the letter on his behalf.

The delegation has had some success on its visit to the United Kingdom and will take home six skulls from Victoria and Western Australia that had been held in museums in Manchester and London.

But they ended up picketing the Museum of Natural History after it refused to hand over the skins, organs and bones of 450 Aborigines held in its collection for use in scientific research.

The museum says it is bound by the British Museums Act 1963, which forbids it from disposing of items in its collection unless they are damaged, duplicates or unfit for study.

Bemused tourists looked on as Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner burnt a mixture of Canadian sweetgrass, sage, cedar and gum leaves in a traditional smoking ceremony at the museum's entrance on Thursday.

"We want the biological remains of our ancestors," FAIRA spokesman Bob Weatherall told the tourists.

"Their hearts, their lungs, their uteruses, their penises - we want to take them home from this barbaric place."

A museum spokeswoman said the institute was committed to continuing research on human remains from around the world.

"We are very aware of interest in return of human remains to their areas of origin, and the museum is committed to dialogue and discussion on the subject," she said.

Source: AAP

Aborigines to picket British museum

31 July 2003 - A group of Aborigines will picket Britain's prestigious Museum of Natural History in protest at its refusal to hand back the skulls, skins and organs of 450 of their ancestors.

Elders will perform a traditional smoking ceremony outside the west London museum on Thursday and ask visitors for their support in urging trustees to return the remains to Australia for burial.

The remains, collected between 80 and 150 years ago, are being stored in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in the museum, and are used for scientific experiments.

Some of the remains come from murdered Aborigines, while others were dug up from graves or stolen from morgues and hospitals.

"It's important for the spirits of our people to pass into the spirit world and they can't do that here in this land," Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner said.

"We have to take them back to their own land where their people can take them home and go through a ceremony with them in their own way."

The delegation was meeting with a human rights lawyer to discuss a possible legal challenge to the museum's refusal.

ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon will then ask ATSIC to fund the challenge at the next meeting of commissioners in three weeks' time.

"We need to have a human rights challenge with these people," Dillon said.

"There needs to be a court case where we take them on and challenge them that those remains have a right to go back where they belong."

On Tuesday, Manchester Museum handed over four skulls to be returned to Victoria.

But the Natural History Museum's director of paleontology, Dr Norman MacLeod, said it would be illegal under the British Museums Act to return its collection.

Under the 40-year-old law, which is being reviewed by a British government committee, museum trustees can only dispose of specimens if the object concerned is a duplicate, has no scientific value or is damaged.

Source: The Age

Aborigines to picket UK museum

From correspondents in London

31 July 2003 - A group of Aborigines will picket Britain's prestigious Museum of Natural History on Thursday in protest at its refusal to hand back the skulls, skins and organs of 450 of their ancestors.

Elders will perform a traditional smoking ceremony outside the west London museum and ask visitors for their support in urging trustees to return the remains to Australia for burial.
The remains, collected between 80 and 150 years ago, are being stored in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and vaults in the museum, and are used for scientific experiments.

Some of the remains come from murdered Aborigines, while others were dug up from graves or stolen from morgues and hospitals.

"It's important for the spirits of our people to pass into the spirit world and they can't do that here in this land," Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner said.

"We have to take them back to their own land where their people can take them home and go through a ceremony with them in their own way."

The delegation was meeting with a human rights lawyer this afternoon to discuss a possible legal challenge to the museum's refusal.

ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon will then ask ATSIC to fund the challenge at the next meeting of commissioners in three weeks' time.

"We need to have a human rights challenge with these people," Dillon said.

"There needs to be a court case where we take them on and challenge them that those remains have a right to go back where they belong."

Manchester Museum yesterday handed over four skulls to be returned to Victoria.

But the Natural History Museum's director of paleontology, Dr Norman MacLeod, said it would be illegal under the British Museums Act to return its collection.

Under the 40-year-old law, which is being reviewed by a British government committee, museum trustees can only dispose of specimens if the object concerned is a duplicate, has no scientific value or is damaged.

Source: Herald Sun

Museum defends Aboriginal remains

From correspondents in London

30 July 2003 - A British museum director today denied having a "nasty attitude" towards Aborigines but refused to hand over the remains of about 450 indigenous Australians to tribal elders.

ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon accused Dr Norman MacLeod, the director of paleontology at the Museum of Natural History, as having a very agitated and nasty attitude towards Aboriginal people after what he called a heated exchange in London.

A second member of the Australian delegation, Bob Weatherall, said Dr MacLeod and the museum were hostile towards Aborigines in their refusal to repatriate the remains, collected for scientific research a century ago.

"Never have I come across a bloke with such a nasty attitude towards Aboriginal people - not even understanding that these remains belong to our people and the importance of them coming back," Mr Dillon said.

Dr MacLeod denied having a heated exchange but said it would be illegal under the British Museums Act to return the remains for burial or safekeeping in Australia.

"I don't know where the idea of hostility comes from, other than a false presumption that the museum must be hostile because we can't accede to their wishes and repatriate the remains. It would be illegal for us to do so," Dr MacLeod said.

"There were certain points in the conversation where I was speaking and Mr Dillon interrupted what I was trying to say and at one point I told him that I had listened to his point of view and now I would like him to listen to mine.

"That was about as heated as it got."

Under a 40-year-old law - which is being reviewed by a British government committee - museum trustees can only dispose of specimens if the object concerned is a duplicate, has no scientific value or is damaged.

The delegation argued that the remains of their ancestors were not fit to be used for scientific experimentation, but Dr MacLeod disagreed.

"I do have sympathy for the position of the Aboriginal peoples," he said.

"But, even with respect to their claims, there are practical problems in the sense of how far back does this extend? Are we to return fossils, are we to return Neanderthal materials, are we to return materials that are clearly human but are millions of years old?"

The museum also had a legal responsibility as custodians of the materials over which ownership sometimes could not be established, he said.

"If we were to repatriate them to the wrong groups or the wrong individuals, then we would open ourselves up to legal action," Dr MacLeod said.

Dr MacLeod confirmed that research was still being conducted on the remains, some of which were collected as recently as the 1920s.

A British government working group is expected to recommend amending the museum laws, which would accelerate the repatriation process, but its report could take another year to finalise.

Mr Weatherall said Aborigines wanted all the remains returned, along with plaster casts, photographs, and reports made from them.

"We believe all that is our intellectual property, and that has to be returned to the traditional owners," he said.

The delegation today received the remains of four Aborigines from a Manchester museum.

The remains, from the Warrnambool district of Victoria and elsewhere, were received from the museum with a smoking ceremony.

Source:The Australian

Aborigines threaten legal battle for remains

By Maria Hawthorne

30 July 2003 - AAP - ATSIC will be asked to fund a legal challenge to a British museum's refusal to return the remains of 450 Aborigines being used for scientific research.

Aboriginal leaders are meeting a human rights lawyer in London this afternoon to discuss possible legal action against the Museum of Natural History.

ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon, who is in London, said he would ask the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) to fund the challenge at the next meeting of commissioners in three weeks' time.

"We need to have a human rights challenge with these people," Mr Dillon told reporters today.

"There needs to be a court case where we take them on and challenge them that those remains have a right to go back where they belong.

"As soon as I go back to Australia this week, I'll be looking at a way of getting some funds to fight this case on behalf of Aboriginal people in Australia.

"I'll be discussing it with some communities as to how we may go about it, and what our next moves are as ATSIC commissioners, and what we're going to do about it, and where we stand on it."

The museum is refusing to return its collection - bones, skin and other human remains, often plundered from graves - to Australia for burial or safekeeping, saying it is not allowed to do so under British law.

The remains were collected a century ago, and are still being used for scientific research, angering Aborigines who want their ancestors to rest peacefully.

Manchester Museum yesterday handed over four skulls to be returned to Victoria. But the delegation had no luck with the Natural History Museum's director of paleontology, Norman MacLeod, whom they accused of having a "nasty attitude" towards Aborigines.

The delegation will picket the museum tomorrow, and hold a traditional smoking ceremony for their ancestors' souls.

"The people who run the place have no sympathy for the Aboriginal people of Australia, and have no regard for the fact they are handling the bodies of real people - people who have been murdered for their body parts or stolen from sacred burial sites," delegation member Bob Weatherall said.

"They are not willing to face the errors of their ways, and they use ancient and out-of-date legislation to prevent us having any say in the safekeeping or handling of these poor people."

But Dr MacLeod said it would be illegal under the British Museums Act to return the remains for burial or safekeeping in Australia.

Under the 40-year-old law, which is being reviewed by a British government committee, museum trustees can dispose of specimens only if the object concerned is a duplicate, has no scientific value, or is damaged.

"I do have sympathy for the position of the Aboriginal peoples," Dr MacLeod said.

"But, even with respect to their claims, there are practical problems in the sense of how far back does this extend? Are we to return fossils? Are we to return neanderthal materials? Are we to return materials that are clearly human but are millions of years old?"

The museum also had a legal responsibility as custodians of the materials over which ownership sometimes could not be established, he said.

"If we were to repatriate them to the wrong groups or the wrong individuals, then we would open ourselves up to legal action," MacLeod said.

He confirmed that research was still being conducted on the remains, some of which were collected as recently as the 1920s.

Aborigines call for Britons' support in battle for remains

By Maria Hawthorne

30 July 2003 -AAP - Aboriginal leaders today stepped up their battle with London's Museum of Natural History, calling on Britons to back their fight for the return of Aboriginal remains. The museum is refusing to hand over its collection of remains to
Australia for burial or safekeeping, saying it is not allowed to do so under British law.

The bones of 450 Aborigines were collected a century ago and are still being used for scientific research, angering Aboriginal descendants who want their ancestors to rest peacefully.

A delegation of Aboriginal leaders yesterday received four skulls from the Manchester Museum, which will be returned to Victoria.

But the delegation has had no luck with the Natural History Museum, and accused its director of paleontology Dr Norman MacLeod of having a "nasty attitude" towards Aborigines.

The delegation will picket the museum tomorrow (Thursday) and ask museum visitors to register their vote in favour of the Aboriginal people of Australia.

"This should have been a very happy occasion for us, as we return ancestral remains to their traditional custodians and end the spiritual turmoil for many communities," delegation member Bob Weatherall said.

"However we are deeply troubled and sad because we have been insulted by inhuman and insensitive responses from one particular museum.

"The people who run the place have no sympathy for the Aboriginal people of Australia and have no regard for the fact they are handling the bodies of real people - people who have been murdered for their body parts or stolen from sacred burial sites."

Weatherall said the delegation had tried to reason with the museum without success.

"They are not willing to face the errors of their ways and they use ancient and out of date legislation to prevent us having any say in the safekeeping or handling of these poor people," he said.

MacLeod rejected the claim he had a "nasty attitude" towards Aborigines and denied having a heated exchange with the delegation, led by ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon.

But he said it would be illegal under the British Museums Act to return the remains for burial or safekeeping in Australia.

Under the 40-year-old law, which is being reviewed by a British government committee, museum trustees can only dispose of specimens if the object concerned is a duplicate, has no scientific value or is damaged.

"I do have sympathy for the position of the Aboriginal peoples," MacLeod said.

"But, even with respect to their claims, there are practical problems in the sense of how far back does this extend? Are we to return fossils, are we to return Neanderthal materials, are we to return materials that are clearly human but are millions of years old?"

The museum also had a legal responsibility as custodians of the materials over which ownership sometimes could not be established, he said.

"If we were to repatriate them to the wrong groups or the wrong individuals, then we would open ourselves up to legal action," MacLeod said.

He confirmed research was still being conducted on the remains, some of which were collected as recently as the 1920s.

English museum gives Aboriginal skulls back to tribal elders

Reporter: Matt Peacock

29 July 2003 - ABC - ELEANOR HALL: A northern English museum will this week give Australian tribal elders four Aboriginal skulls collected in Australia more than 100 years ago.

The skulls, which have been gathering dust in the vaults of the Manchester Museum, will be handed over to a delegation from the Foundation for Aboriginal and Island Research Action for transport back to Victoria.

But as our Correspondent Matt Peacock reports from London, other British museums have refused to hand over their bones, leaving the visiting indigenous leaders incensed.

MATT PEACOCK: Throughout Britain there are thousands of Aboriginal body parts still kept in institutions like museums or universities. Some museums have repatriated the human remains, but others – like the British Natural History Museum – have said they won't.

It was an angry Aboriginal delegation that emerged from Britain's Natural History Museum today, after being told they must identify the provenance of any Aboriginal human remains that they want repatriated.

RODNEY DILLON: I feel that angry with them I couldn't even shake hands with them, because I didn't regard them as decent people to shake hands with. This has really disturbed me, to think that these people are treating us like this.

We're here from our people to tell them what's going on, and they're saying that they'll only deal with the people from that area. They don't even know what the area is that those remains are from, and once again I think there's a very clear indication that Mr Blair will have to step in and change this law himself if he wants honest and just things to happen to people around the world.

MATT PEACOCK: ATSIC's Rodney Dillon.

BOB WETHERILL: It just makes me really, really angry, and it just makes us fired up more to fight these buggers, and even if it means taking them to court, then we'll have to do that.

MATT PEACOCK: Bob Wetherill from the Foundation of Aboriginal and Islander Research Action.

But at Cambridge University, Professor Robert Foley says that Aboriginal human remains, like many others, are essential for future scientific research.

ROBERT FOLEY: The importance lies in the fact that they are basically the record of our species' history. If you're interested in humans, how they evolved, what sorts of challenges they went through in the course of their evolution, the different diseases that they've suffered, the way they've adapted to particular environments, these collections are the information devices, they're like the books in which the history of our species is written.

MATT PEACOCK: What's your message to an Aboriginal person who comes and knocks on the door and says we believe my great grandfather is in your lab?

ROBERT FOLEY: I think if we can be sure that there really is a close relationship between them, we would certainly look sympathetically at any such claim.

However, I think opening up from there to wholesale repatriation material, largely because of a feeling of guilt about a colonial past, or because of emotional pressure that one's under, is probably a mistake, because I think we, as I said, we do have to engage in the intellectual argument that these collections still remain important resources for understanding humans as a whole.

In other words, in a way the collections don't belong to a particular community, they don't belong to a particular society, they are telling us about our species, humans in their totality.

MATT PEACOCK: If somebody says, this is my religion – until these bodies are returned they will never rest, how do you answer them?

ROBERT FOLEY: I think, I hope I would be able to engage with them and say I do understand that and I can see the arguments to do with your religion, but there are also benefits in allowing this material to remain, that by keeping them preserved when it's contributing to a great emphasis on Australian Aboriginal culture within human history, and I think that's an important contribution that again maybe their children and their grandchildren will be grateful that that material is preserved.

ELEANOR HALL: Professor Robert Foley from Cambridge University speaking there to Matt Peacock in London.

Source: ABC News - The World Today

Aborigines threaten legal action over right to remains

29 July 2003 - An Aboriginal group seeking the return of Aboriginal human remains in British museums says it will sue the British Natural History Museum if it refuses to return indigenous body parts in its collection.

London's Horniman Museum and the Manchester Museum have this week handed back Aboriginal body parts in their possession to an Aboriginal delegation.

However, other museums including the Natural History Museum say their collections should stay in Britain in the interests of scientific research.

An official from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Rodney Dillon, says there can be no argument about the right of the remains to be returned to Australia.

"This is not about ownership. This is about the right of the people, that the remains of these people come home," Mr Dillion said.

It is estimated there are thousands of Aboriginal body parts still held in British institutions, despite an agreement between the governments of both countries to encourage their repatriation.

Source: ABC Radio Australia

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