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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lSwedish uni returns Aboriginal remains20 February 2008 - Lund University in southern Sweden handed over the remains of two Aboriginals to Australia at a special ceremony. Phil Gordon head of the repatriation unit of the Sydney-based Australian Museum told Swedish radio news that "when the remains are returned there is a great feeling of joy and happiness, and sometimes sadness that these remains were taken away". The remains were likely the last Aboriginal remains in Sweden, and consisted of two skulls bought at an auction in London, likely at the end of the 1800s. In October, the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm handed over the remains of at least 10 Aboriginals to Australia, capping a several year-long debate over alleged grave plunder. The Swedish government earlier ordered other museums including the National Museums for World Culture to repatriate similar remains. The Museum of Ethnography had the remains in its collections since the early 1900s. Researcher Claes Hallgren concluded that the remains at the Museum of Ethnography were likely plundered from graves in Kimberley, Western Australia by a Swedish expedition in 1910-11. At the time, Aboriginal bones were regarded to be interesting research material. In 2004, the remains of 15 other individuals held in other Swedish museums were repatriated to Australia. Source: The Age
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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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