Kaurna remains returned from Natural History Museum in London to be interred at Kingston Park

A metropolitan coastal reserve will be the last resting place for Aboriginal remains returned to Adelaide from the Natural History Museum in London.

A metropolitan coastal reserve will be the last resting place for Aboriginal remains returned to Adelaide from the Natural History Museum in London.

Holdfast Bay Council has approved an application by representatives of the Kaurna to bury the remains of three people in the Kingston Park Coastal Reserve.

The remains are among 31 South Australian Aboriginals repatriated in March from the Natural History Museum by the Federal Government.

Provenance testing had shown the three people to be buried at Kingston Park were Kaurna, with two coming from the Holdfast Bay area.

A burial site had been chosen in sand dunes at the reserve near the Brighton Caravan Park, which has registered Kaurna burial sites.

A ceremony scheduled for next month is expected to take two days to complete.

Kaurna Elder Jeffrey Newchurch, right, with Holdfast Bay mayor Amanda Wilson last year.

Known as “old people” hundreds of Aboriginal remains were taken overseas for scientific and anthropological research until the 1940s.

Many were stolen and illegally exported, ending up museums and other institutions across Europe.

An Indigneous Repatriation Program established by the Commonwealth has so far led to the more than 1430 anecestral remains coming back to Australia.

Germany is the most recent country to return remains, with universities handing over 37 “old people” from their collections last month.

The process of returning the remains to South Australia has been ongoing for several years, with other burials at the Coorong in 2003 and Tennyson late last year.

Two Kaurna representatives travelled to London in March to collect the latest “old people”, including the three who will be buried at Kingston Park.

The reserve has special cultural significance to the Kaurna as it is the location of the freshwater Tijlbruke Spring.

Tijlbruke is part of Aboriginal Dreaming, with the spring featuring prominently in Kaurna stories.

Holdfast Bay mayor Amanda Wilson said the repatriation of the remains to Kingston Park would provide the opportunity to increase wider understanding of its cultural significance.

“We are walking together side by side with the Kaurna community to return the ancestral remains to country,” she said.

“Kingston Park is a sacred site for the Kaurna Aboriginal community.

“The Tjilbruke Spring and surrounding reserve is a registered Aboriginal heritage site, due to its anthropological, archaeological and cultural significance.”