The Long Way Home
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The Long Way Home

The Meaning and Values of Repatriation

Paul Turnbull, Michael Pickering, Paul Turnbull, Michael Pickering

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The Long Way Home

The Meaning and Values of Repatriation

Paul Turnbull, Michael Pickering, Paul Turnbull, Michael Pickering

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About This Book

Indigenous peoples have long sought the return of ancestral human remains and associated artifacts from western museums and scientific institutions. Since the late 1970s their efforts have led museum curators and researchers to re-evaluate their practices and policies in respect to the scientific uses of human remains. New partnerships have been established between cultural and scientific institutions and indigenous communities. Human remains and culturally significant objects have been returned to the care of indigenous communities, although the fate of bones and burial artifacts in numerous collections remains unresolved and, in some instances, the subject of controversy. In this book, leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences reflect critically on the historical, cultural, ethical and scientific dimensions of repatriation. Through various case studies they consider the impact of repatriation: what have been the benefits, and in what ways has repatriation given rise to new problems for indigenous people, scientists and museum personnel. It features chapters by indigenous knowledge custodians, who reflect upon recent debates and interaction between indigenous people and researchers in disciplines with direct interests in the continued scientific preservation of human remains.

In this book, leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences reflect critically on the historical, cultural, ethical and scientific dimensions of repatriation. Through various case studies they consider the impact of repatriation: what have been the benefits, and in what ways has repatriation given rise to new problems for indigenous people, scientists and museum personnel. It features chapters by indigenous knowledge custodians, who reflect upon recent debates and interaction between indigenous people and researchers in disciplines with direct interests in the continued scientific preservation of human remains.

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Information

Year
2010
ISBN
9781845459598
Topic
Art
Edition
1

Part I

Ancestors, Not Specimens

1

The Meanings and Values of Repatriation

Henry Atkinson

On behalf of the people of the Yorta Yorta Nation, I want to begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which the conference which led me to write this chapter was held. I thank the Ngunnawal people for generously welcoming all of us who journeyed to their country. And I also want to pay my respects to the ancestral spirits and to the spirits of those who are not yet home in the land of their birth.
I feel we have a long way to go in the process of repatriation for there are many of our ancestral remains still in institutions and museums the world over, which we know about; and there are many more in countries yet to be located, identified and returned to country. It is hard to think of any words that adequately capture the meanings and values of repatriation to my people. The theft of ancestral remains and secret sacred ceremonial objects I can best describe as a form of genocide. And when we speak of the values of repatriation, I am moved to say what value can you put on your ancestors? There is no dollar value and no words that can really describe the value of our ancestors. For you, they have no emotional value ā€“ except in the immoral way in which Indigenous people were exploited. To me, my people and other Indigenous groups around the world, it is an entirely a different matter. These skeletal remains belong to me and I belong to them. Some of my people were given burials according to the custom of each clan group, but there were people who were not given the chance of a burial and now lie in an undignified manner all over the world.
It has been documented by the European scientific world that the Indigenous people of Australia have existed for about forty to sixty thousand years. However, I was taught that we have been here since time began and in that time we lived as one with the land and water, adapting parts of it to suit our peopleā€™s needs and requirements. And still today, in this modern world, we continue to have our own beliefs and deep spiritual connections to our country. They are deep inside me, my children and grandchildren.
The present-day states of Victoria and of New South Wales are divided by the Murray River. However, the traditional country of the Yorta Yorta Nation lies on both sides of the river. Within a particular part of my country there are many sacred sites and areas where graves have been robbed of remains and the goods that were buried with the dead. The dead must not be disturbed again, not in the course of construction and certainly not for any kind of scientific research. Indeed, scientific use of the remains of my people must cease or dialogue between researchers and Indigenous people on the meanings and values of repatriation will be impossible.
Yorta Yorta country was once stocked with all manner of food sources for my people. The land provided all we needed and when she was taken away in the course of European settlement ā€“ an invasion that saw the decimation of our people ā€“ we came to be regarded as a threatened race in our own land, especially by men of science. Over the years numerous scientists ā€“ medical doctors, anthropologists, dentists, archaeologists, in Australia and other parts of the world ā€“ sought to procure Indigenous remains. Some wanted soft body tissue that had to be preserved in alcohol. Others wanted craniums, or entire skeletons. The remains of my people were collected like one collects stamps or swap cards. It was what I call the ā€˜ivory tradeā€™ of my people, the first stolen generation. However, my people were not elephants. They were parents and children, all belonging to a family just like yours.
My people were hunted down, poisoned, shot or hacked to death. Where there were massacres, people were left behind to endure the pain of having seen their beloved family members battered or shot to death. Can you imagine just what this would have been like? To have been sitting under a gum tree, by the river, when out of nowhere comes the thunderous sound of horses and, before you have time even to think, the horde is upon you and if you are unlucky enough to survive you are left with the terrors of that moment forever. What you see is like a fast running movie with butts of guns flaying through the air, rifle shots piercing the quietness and sending the bird life into a screeching mass to join with the screams of pain inflicted upon the oldest, and the youngest, of your family. Honestly, I donā€™t know how my people survived this. The pain of this history is deep within me, and continues to affect my children and grandchildren.
For those scientists who wanted to obtain whole bodies, these were put into barrels of spirits to preserve them on the long journey overseas, while others were reduced to skeletons. My people were wrapped in brown paper or put in a rough hessian bag and shipped overseas. There was no thought of this being a person, a living human. How can the spirits of oneā€™s ancestors rest when they have been subject to this type of inhumane treatment. How can they rest when, even to this day, they are still subject to the prying eyes and the jabbing tools of a so-called civilised society? My peopleā€™s skeletal remains are in museums and other scientific institutions in many countries. We believe that there are over ten thousand skeletal remains in the United Kingdom awaiting repatriation. It is beyond me how Australia permitted the remains of so many people to be stolen and sent overseas for experimentation. What really makes it especially hard to comprehend is that this occurred in the 200 years and more since colonisation, and no government has made any conscientious and sustained effort to bring my people home.
A lot of people do not know that the remains of my people have aided the medical world in fields such as dentistry and bone structure, and that the results of experimentation on soft body tissue and bone has been the subject of academic theses and doctorates. However, is this justification for plundering of the remains of so many of my Indigenous brothers and sisters Australia wide? The gaining of doctorates and the like through the use of remains as a path to higher professional status has been at the expense of my ancestors. What benefit has this research had for Indigenous people? Our babies still die younger, our youth have less opportunity and our elders live approximately twenty years less than the non-Indigenous population. Despite all the money poured into research and the money made by some from this research, Indigenous people are still no better off. They have less of the basics of everything.
To add insult to injury, as if my people have not had enough experimentation performed on their remains, it has been suggested that they undergo DNA testing. One wonders, why? I am worried about the terms used by non-Indigenous for acknowledging oneā€™s Aboriginality? Will governments then be able to say that a personā€™s DNA does not have enough of certain characteristics and that, therefore, they are not Indigenous?
We are looking forward to future negotiations with overseas museums in repatriating our people and those of their possessions that were taken from Australia without consent. While in England in 2003, I was part of a delegation that was able to bring home some people from the Royal College of Surgeons and we were grateful for the way in which the college repatriated my people. It was a moving experience and one which we hope to be able to repeat.
In April 2004, I went with a delegation to America to bring back some of my people whose remains had been offered for sale on the web. Their remains had been traded for plastic boomerangs and the purchaser sought to resell the remains, even though this is illegal in the United States. He was reluctant to turn over the remains until he had our assurance that he would not be prosecuted for illegally possessing the skeletal remains of an Indigenous Australian.
While visiting the University of Michigan, we were offered more remains of our people for repatriation. It seems incredible to me that some of the remains that we brought home from Michigan had only left Australia approximately fifteen years ago. They had apparently been received from a medical institution. I want to know how the remains of my people could have been sent overseas just fifteen years ago. The government is supposed to protect ancestral remains, artefacts and sacred objects and prevent them leaving the country. It leads me ask, does this still happen? Will it continue to happen?
While in America we also met with Indigenous people who welcomed us with traditional ceremonies and we were shocked to hear that, while the University of Michigan had gladly returned our people, they resisted in returning the remains of their own Indigenous people to country. My view is that it is much the same here in Australia with the museums wanting to return Australian Indigenous remains but unwilling to return those of the Indigenous people of another country. You cannot show respect for the Indigenous people of Australia and not for the Indigenous people of all countries. We share similar histories and a common identity. All Indigenous remains, skeletal and otherwise, must be returned to their country of origin. It is important to the healing processes of Indigenous people, for the past holds much pain with not only the ancestors being taken by force and brutal means but also the tearing apart of the fabric of our lives. All remains need to be given ceremony which will ease the pain of the Indigenous community and restore some self respect and pride as their ancestral spirits are united.
One organisation, the Freemasons Lodge Society of Victoria, returned skeletal remains to the Indigenous community in 2001. I wonder why this body of people would want to use the skeletal remains of my people in their ceremonial practices. Further, there are many Freemasonsā€™ lodges not just in Victoria but throughout Australia and overseas. To my knowledge, at this point in time, none have come forward to return any skeletal remains they have of our people. However, it leaves me wondering whether there are other instances where our remains are the subjects of bizarre practices.
There is one thing that can never be stolen from our people and that is their spirit. They can box us up, stack us on shelves, experiment to no end, trade us and even swap us but our spirit will never be broken; while I am alive I will do all in my power to right the wrongs of history and force the keepers and collectors and the like to return my people home so their spirits can rest at last.
I remember being with my father in the bush as a young man. He would point out places of interest where there were many sacred and spiritual sites to further my knowledge. He would also show me many burial sites and tell me stories about how these sacred resting places of our ancestors were robbed and we could not do a thing about it. There was no protection as we were still classed as nothing more than decoration of this country and on the same level as the animals. I also remember being with my mother on one of those very rare visits to the city for a country boy. We went to the museum and one has to be in my shoes to appreciate the pain and tears on my motherā€™s face when confronted with displays of her own people. There, for all to stare at, were her ancestors and artefacts with deep spiritual meaning on display. Some were things that only women should see; others were associated with menā€™s business. As a young boy I did not understand her pain and my parents did not want to talk about it. Now, as a man with family and grandchildren of my own, I feel my parentā€™s deep sorrow and wish I could have lifted some of the pain from their shoulders. Yet, all I can do is work as hard as I can to bring our people home and let their spirits roam free in their ancestral country.
On behalf of the Indigenous people of this country and particularly the Yorta Yorta Nation, I would like to acknowledge Mr Bob Weatherall and thank him for his foresight and endeavours in bringing so many of our people home. I would also like to thank Robyn Weatherall, Bobā€™s wife, for all the support she has given him in securing the return of our people. Bob has spent most of his life in repatriating our people. He has made sure that those being returned home are treated in a dignified manner. This is something Bob has insisted upon, ensuring that everyone, from the transport carriers to the airline cargo handlers, understand the crucial importance of respecting the spirits of the dead. Unfortunately, the federal government has different views. It wants a ā€˜government to governmentā€™ approach to the repatriation of our people that largely excludes Indigenous people from the process and does not involve the observation of proper cultural protocols.
Prior to its disestablishment in March 2005, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) supported research allowing us, in many instances, to identify the area of country from which remains had been taken, thus enabling us to return them to their rightful place in the land. Before further ancestral remains are brought home, this research must continue. ATSIC also supported the central involvement of Indigenous people in the repatriation of our ancestral remains, research and grave goods. Non-Indigenous people do not have the spiritual connection to the remains of our people and, therefore, there is a greater chance that they may act in an excessively bureaucratic or insensitive way, with the result that remains are simply shipped in a box and delivered to us with the expectation that we will inter them in any old way. This is not good enough. Our people, the living and the deceased, have profound obligations to ensure our ancestors are returned to their country and not just thrown in the ground anywhere.
I plead with men and women of the scientific world ā€“ anthropologists, archaeologists and the like ā€“ to pressure governments and institutions not to make it so difficult to bring our people home. The remains of our people must be allowed our customs and ceremony before they leave the prisons that have held them for so many years. Indigenous custodians who will give our people the respect they deserve must bring them home.
Indigenous people must be allowed to have this spiritual connection with their ancestors ā€“ beginning with the performance of ceremonies by Indigenous custodians when their remains are released from their obscene holding areas before they commence the long journey home, where they can be joined by the waiting Indigenous community before ā€“ after due traditional customs ā€“ they are returned to the earth of their beginning. This is the way Bob Weatherall commenced his days in repatriation, caring for all we hold in relation to our spiritual beings, and this standard must continue. I have laughed with this man and I have cried with him, when our physical and spiritual pain digs into our being as Indigenous men, for the great spirits of our ancestors from the beginning to our Dreamtime connects us.

2

Repatriating Our Ancestors: Who Will Speak for the Dead?

Franchesca Cubillo

This paper may contain information regarding Indigenous human remains that may cause distress to some people and I apologise for this.
Indigenous Australian communities today have a cultural and spiritual responsibility to ensure that our ancestorsā€™ remains are returned to their homelands. As a nation of people, we have had to fight for the rights of our ancestors because their remains are held in research institutions throughout the world. In the last twenty years, Indigenous people in Australia have discovered that the remains of at least 7,200 of their ancestors are held in museums in Australia, 5,500 whose provenance is known. It is estimated that another ten thousand are held in overseas institutions. Our ancestors, despite state policies, continue to be trapped within these facilities by historical constructs, political agendas and scientific debate and they are denied proper burial rights.
Museums in Australia have been actively involved in repatriation for the last twenty years, but what are the results, who is monitoring their efforts and who is advising them at a national level? Have these mechanisms been effective and what lessons have we learnt? This chapter will discuss the achievements and shortfalls of repatriation efforts in Australia to date. It will investigate the effectiveness of state and federal policies and government programs and consider what the future options are for the efficient and timely repatriation of the remains of our ancestors.
Today I would like to speak to you as both a museum professional and an Indigenous person. I have been fortunate to work in Indigenous cultural heritage institutions for the last fifteen years; twelve of these have been specifically within museums. My initial introduction to museums was through the Strehlow Collection, which in 1989 was held at the South Australian Museum (and is now housed in the Strehlow Research Centre in Alice Springs). I was intrigued by the political and ethical dilemmas surrounding this important collection of central Australian restricted objects and associated archival material.
I soon gained employment at the South Australian Museum and, fortunately, it was at a time when repatriation of restricted ceremonial objects and human remains was being discussed. It was an exciting time within museums as they were becoming more responsive to Indigenous concerns regarding access to collections, repatriation and providing employment and training opportunities for Indigenous people. The South Australian Museum was in the midst of the process of developing new and productive relationships with Indigenous people. One of the initial outcomes of this process was the establishment of policies governing the repatriation of Indigenous Human Remains and the repatriation of Restricted Secret/Sacred objects. These tw...

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