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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.

The trip is the culmination of many years of campaigns by the Tasmanian Aboriginal people to get remains returned from museums in the UK and Europe. This quest was helped by an agreement struck between Prime Ministers Blair and Howard to pass British laws that "enabled" museums to repatriate human remains. Under that new law, the two cremation ash bundles held by the British Museum have been made ready to bring home to our people.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has been at the forefront of the national and international push for repatriation of indigenous human remains. The campaign began in Tasmania with the return of Trukanini's skeletal remains in 1976, the infamous Crowther collection in 1983, and remains returned from Ireland, Scotland, England, Sweden and New Zealand from 1985 onwards.

The two delegates are Leah Brown and Adam Thompson. Aged 23 and 28 respectively, they are the youngest Tasmanian Aboriginal delegates ever entrusted with the responsibility of escorting their ancestors' remains home.

They will be in the UK until 13 September, and will also meet with the Natural History Museum, Oxford University and the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, to continue our discussions about the return of Tasmanian remains in those collections. Leah and Adam also intend to visit the Leverhulme Centre at Cambridge University, where Robert Foley, Director of the Duckworth Collection which contains Tasmanian remains, has refused for over 20 years to answer any of our letters or agree to meet any delegations.

Remains already returned to us have included skin from an Aboriginal man William Lanne which was used as a tobacco pouch, and the remains of Trukanini, who was raped during her life and her body displayed after her death in museums despite her express wish. Many of our ancestors' remains in the UK were robbed from graves and others, like these cremation bundles, taken from our people as they lay sick and dying. Our delegates and the museums are now jointly working to repair these old wrongs, whose effects are still felt deep in the hearts of our people.

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