Tribes rejoice as stolen artefacts come home

A Gulf indigenous community has celebrated the return of ceremonial artefacts repatriated from a UK museum.

WHEN the Gangalidda Garawa tribes danced on the vast salt plains of the Gulf country yesterday, it was a “welcome home to the spirits”.

It celebrated the return of ceremonial artefacts stolen away to Britain about 116 years ago.

“Some are everyday items,’’ Gangalidda leader Murrandoo Yanner said at a special ceremony in Burketown, 10 hours’ drive west of Cairns.

“Jewellery and feather decorations, kangaroo teeth in wax emblazoned with beads, but many others are very sacred objects.”

Manchester Museum gave back the 43 items to mark the 250th anniversary next year of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia.

“It is a positive step, hopefully, this will embarrass the other larger museums in ­Britain to return other sacred objects,” said Mr Yanner, a renowned Aboriginal firebrand.

The Gangalidda and Garawa tribes hold a special cultural ceremony to mark the return of artefacts from Manchester Museum in the UK.

“Many of these items were taken from the dead hands of freshly shot people, and a spirit is attached to it.

“Our ancient ritual of song and dance is a celebration of their spiritual return back home to their country.

“It’s a very, very powerful event, and it helps our cultural revival.’’

Donald Bob, one of the ­Garawa elders, said that when he saw one sacred item in the Manchester storeroom, he felt cold.

“The spirit jumped into my body,” the tribal elder said.

“It was crying for its home.’’

Some of the Aboriginal ceremonial items repatriated from Manchester Museum

In a show of good faith, British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell made the long trek from ­Canberra to the tiny outback town, population 200, in the isolated Gulf of Carpentaria for the handover.

Manchester is the first museum in Europe to begin the repatriation ­process, with about 32,000 Aboriginal Australian items identified in UK museums.

The artefacts range from traditional body ornaments and slippers to a churinga, a wood or stone item believed to embody the spiritual double of a relative or ancestor.

Some objects belong to “secret men’s business” and cannot be photographed, seen or touched by women or non-indigenous people.

One of the few items that can be shown is a ceremonial headpiece made of emu or other bird feathers, which is used for initiation ceremonies. It will go on display in Burketown museum.

Some of the Aboriginal ceremonial items repatriated from Manchester Museum