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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lABORIGINAL LEADER HEADS TO LONDON TO BRING 17 DEAD HOME20 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.
Clyde Mansell said, “I would swim if I had to. These are our people, and the scientists at the Museum have done enough damage to our old people. We just cannot sit here and leave it to the Australian Government and lawyers. I am going to London for one reason: to bring my old people home. I am sick of scientists claiming rights over our dead. If the scientists want to play around with the dead, let them dig up the bones of their grandparents.” Clyde Mansell said he would attend the case before the High Court in London because he is a witness in those proceedings. “I would like to have my day in court to put our case for dignifying our dead. I also want to look the scientists in the eye and tell them how evil we believe them to be. I will be insisting the Natural history Museum does not further mutilate the bodies of our ancestors, which it has been doing since December and intends to continue doing.” Clyde Mansell Museum accused of mutilating Aboriginal bones By David Langton 19 February 2007 - The Natural History Museum has been accused by Tasmanian Aboriginals of "mutilating" the remains of their ancestors. Native Australians say the institution The Natural History Museum has been accused by Tasmanian Aboriginals of "mutilating" the remains of their ancestors. Native Australians say the institution has defiled the 17th-century bones by removing parts for scientific tests. The dispute centres on 17 skeletons held by the museum in London since the 1940s. Although it has agreed to return the remains in its possession, the museum has been collecting samples from skulls and bones for DNA analysis. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC), which is bringing legal action against the museum today, complained the tests were "racist" and desecrated the beliefs of the Aboriginal community. The dead are believed to be "souls in torment" until buried according to Aboriginal custom, which involves being returned to their birthplace and read their last rites. Michael Mansell, of the TAC said: "The Natural History Museum's tests were 'genetic prospecting' which would desecrate the spiritual beliefs of the community from whom the skulls and bones were taken by grave robbery and by boiling down human flesh. "They would never dare to do these experiments to the human remains of Jews or Roma or Scots or Manx Islanders. That they intend to mutilate our ancestors without our consent shows that they have not lost the same primitive mindset of the first English settlers, who treated our people as sub-humans." The museum said it was trying to strike a balance between the scientific value of the research for future generations and the cultural and religious beliefs of indigenous people. The repatriation of the remains had not been possible until the 2005 Human Tissue Act came into force. After advice from its independent Human Remains Advisory Panel, the museum had decided to return the remains once data collection had been completed on 31 March, a spokeswoman said. Last week, the museum gave a legal pledge not to conduct intrusive experiments on the remains until a four-day hearing of the issues, planned for this week. Lawyers for the museum say scientific work has been performed on the remains for decades. Richard Clayton QC said the current intended research into a "unique resource" about mankind's origins took the form of photography, surface laser scans of skulls, DNA analysis, and slivers being taken from some of them. According to the TAC, about 8,000 Aboriginals were in Tasmania when the British settled on the island in 1803, but by 1850 only 47 were left. Thousands died in massacres and of diseases caught from colonists. Geoffrey Robertson QC, for the TAC, said an "unhealthy" interest in their remains led to grave robberies and to some remains coming lawfully into the possession of the museum from collections more than 100 years ago. The museum denies acting inappropriately, and Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, is due to file a witness statement today outlining the Government's position on the affair. Source: The Independent (UK)
19 February 2007 - LONDON: A Tasmanian aboriginal group is suing Britain's Museum of Natural History to keep it from conducting tests on bones, teeth and skulls taken from the island, saying Monday that the experiments would desecrate the corpses. The museum agreed last year to return the bones — mostly obtained during the 1940s — to Australia, but indicated it wanted first to run tests on them, as they represented some of the few remaining pieces of objective data about the region's original inhabitants. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Center, which has been awarded custody of the remains, said any tests on the bones would defile the remains of victims of genocide. "They would never dare to do these experiments to the human remains of Jews or Roma or Scots or Manx Islanders," the center's lawyer, Michael Mansell, said in a statement. "They intend to mutilate our ancestors without our consent." The museum said would meet with the aboriginal group, but that it would continue to fight the suit, which goes to court on Thursday. The museum wants to measure, photograph, X-ray and make casts of the bones, along with drilling and shaving off microscopic bits of material from the teeth and skulls to extract genetic material. The Tasmanian group said the experiments might not yield any useful scientific information. "The Natural History Museum's tests were 'genetic prospecting' which would desecrate the spiritual beliefs of the community from whom the skulls and bones were taken by grave robbery," Mansell said. Aboriginals believe a soul is in torment unless the body rests in its native land. The museum has acknowledged that the remains, drawn from 17 individuals, were either looted or taken coercively, but said the aboriginal demands should be weighed against the scientific value of the bones. "We see the strength of both the (aboriginal) view and the scientific view, and the decision (to conduct tests) is aimed to meet the primary interests of both groups," museum spokesman Claudine Fontana said. "We will be returning these remains permanently, and it is only the information about them that we will keep." The Natural History Museum has a collection of almost 20,000 human remains, taken from all over the world and dating back 500,000 years. Most were taken from Britain. Australia's government has backed the aboriginals' argument. In a letter addressed to the museum and to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Australian High Commissioner Richard Alston said Friday that the issue was "already causing considerable distress in the community of origin of the remains," and urged a negotiated settlement. Tasmanians were almost completely exterminated after the 19th-century arrival of white settlers to their island. Out of a population of 4,000, only 200 remained in the 1830s, and the last full-blooded Tasmanian died in 1876. Those that remain today are of mixed descent. Source: AP ACTION - PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY Dear Colleagues I ask you to take up urgent action to assist the Aboriginal peoples of Australia to reclaim our ancestral remains from the Natural History Museum in the United Kingdom. Just over a week ago the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) took legal action in the UK High Court to have the UK Natural History Museum (NHM) return the remains of 17 Tasmanian Aboriginals. This action immediately followed a decision in the Tasmanian Supreme Court which recognised the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as the rightful custodians. It became necessary for the TAC to seek and win an immediate injunction to stop the NHM undertaking intrusive tests into these remains to collect and keep DNA information. The UK government has unfortunately joined the action to defend the NHM
position. (The Australian Government has given moral and financial
support to the TAC case but has so far failed to join the action.) We To our disadvantage the court has decided that the matter must be heard in full this Thursday, 22 February 2007. This court case is crucial for all indigenous peoples whose ancestral remains have been taken WITHOUT CONSENT. You might be aware the NHM has been a major collecting institution of
indigenous peoples' bodies, obtained through immoral and inhuman
practices over the past centuries, and it continues to oppose and
resist modern human rights standards. The Natural History Museum
represents the establishment of staid colonialists who think they are
the guardians of the true morality of the world. Their claim to the
importance of 'science' is a euphoric description of the murderous and
evil acts undertaken by the purveyors of racial discrimination. The The NHM clearly expects that British 'class' difference keeps their policies beyond global accountability to the world's indigenous peoples. For example, in its evidence the NHM relies upon the 'fact' that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be defeated. I ask that you raise a public outcry about the position of the NHM and UK government. While the battle in the court is to be held it is important the UK public be made aware of the issues. Will you please immediately write your opposition to the stance of the UK Natural History Museum to show that the indigenous peoples of the world reject its lies about the justification of the 'scientific' value to the people of the world to continue its crime against humanity? You may choose to write privately to the NHM or UK government, or go public in UK and international media, or do both. Please direct a copy of your actions and any outcomes to the following email addresses: Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre - Annie Reynolds, <annie.r (AT) tacinc.com.au> The contact information for the Natural History Museum and the UK
government is below: Email: <m.dixon@nhm.ac.uk> (cc to <feedback@nhm.ac.uk>) UNITED KINGDOM GOVERNMENT Email: <tessa.jowell@culture.gsi.gov.uk > and <jowellt@parliament.uk> regards, Les Malezer Mobile: +61 419 710 720
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its one year on from the Australian Governments controversial intervention into NT Indigenous communities
action Roll back, listen to Indigenous community voices speaking about the intervention |
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