Indigenous remains in London to be brought back to Australia

It’s about time. London’s Natural History Museum has agreed to hand over the remains of 37 indigenous people.

Ancestral remains will be returned to Australia from London’s Natural History Museum. Picture: AAP

The ancestral remains of 37 indigenous people will be returned to Australia from London’s Natural History Museum.

For more than 150 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains and sacred objects were removed from their communities and placed in museums, universities and private collections in Australia and overseas.

But, in a major win for Australia, the UK’s agreement to hand 27 remains back was sealed overnight as Narungga community representatives from South Australia, Douglas Milera and Professor Peter Buckskin, travelled to the UK to attend the handover ceremony.

They received the remains of an ancestor who will be cared for at the South Australian Museum until the community is ready to conduct a reburial ceremony.

Douglas Milera (left) and Professor Peter Buckskin at a repatriation ceremony marking the return of 37 South Australian ancestral remains from the Natural History Museum in London. Picture: AAP

The SA Museum will also look after another seven repatriated ancestral remains.

The remaining 29 ancestral remains will go to the National Museum of Australia until the Ngarrindjeri, Far West Coast, Kaurna and Flinders Ranges communities are ready to lay them to rest.

The handing over ceremony was hosted by the director of the Natural History Museum Sir Michael Dixon, and attended by George Brandis, the Australian High Commissioner to the UK.

“This return is a significant event for our country,” Arts Minister Mitch Fifield said in a statement distributed in Australia.

He said the indigenous repatriation program had led to the return of more than 1480 ancestral remains, including more than 1200 from the UK.