The UK’s Manchester Museum is to return 174 artefacts to an Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory.
On 5 September, a delegation from the Anindilyakwa community of Groote Eylandt – an island located off the north coast of Australia – joined the museum for a special ceremony.
Manchester Museum worked with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Anindilyakwa Land Council over a three-year period to determine where the collection, which includes spears and shell dolls, should reside.
Thomas Amagula, deputy chair of the Anindilyakwa Land Council (ALC), said the cultural repatriation “is an important step for the ALC in pursuing one of our core visions: to ‘protect, maintain, and promote Anindilyakwa culture’.”
Leonard Hill, acting chief executive of AIATSIS, thanked the museum for its “collaborative and ethical approach to caring for their collections and respecting the Anindilyakwa community’s wish to have their material returned to country”.
Manchester Museum has partnered with AIATSIS over the past five years and previously returned sacred and ceremonial items to Aboriginal communities.
However, the current repatriation goes further, the museum said. It embraces the full scope of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “by returning material beyond the secret, sacred and ceremonial that is important to the traditions and memories of the Aboriginal community that made them”.
Sacred and ceremonial items repatriated
“Having spent time on Groote Eylandt at the invitation of the Anindilyakwa people makes reaching this point of handover feel momentous in a different way to any of Manchester Museum’s past returns,” said Georgina Young, head of exhibitions and collections at Manchester Museum.
“Sitting with elders and hearing them discuss this collection on the their land in their terms has enabled me to understand and care in ways not possible in a store room in Manchester, and brought us to a place of understanding together.”
Elsewhere, countries including Wales, China, Nigeria and Greece have called for the British Museum to return artefacts including the Benin bronzes and Parthenon marbles after the recent alleged theft of around 2,000 artefacts.
Images courtesy of Manchester Museum
