Last-ditch move to stop Mungo burial

A group of Indigenous elders has filed an urgent application for a delay in the burial of the ancient Mungo Man and Mungo Lady remains in unmarked graves in NSW.

Jason Kelly says Aboriginal Advisory Group representatives have no authority from the Mutthi Mutthi to proceed with the ‘disgraceful’ reburial plan. Picture: Darren Seiler

A group of Indigenous elders has filed an urgent application for a delay in the impending burial of the ancient Mungo Man and Mungo Lady remains in unmarked graves in regional NSW.

Senior representatives from the three traditional owner groups of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area have filed the application under section 9 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.

The skeletal remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady and 106 other individuals were due to be buried in shallow boreholes at secret locations on Thursday, but elders from the ­region say those plans have now been brought forward to 10am on Tuesday.

The remains of Mungo Man

The discovery in the 1970s of the remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, who roamed the region some 40,000 years ago, changed the scientific understanding of human history and led to the Willandra Lakes being recognised as a World Heritage Area. They represent some of the oldest human remains ever found outside Africa, and Mungo Man is one of the earliest examples of ritual cremation ever discovered.

There has long been debate about what to do with the remains, which spent decades sitting in boxes in Australian National University archives.

Traditional owner groups have been divided over whether the remains should be reburied or instead interred into some sort of crypt or “keeping place”. A body set up to represent traditional owners, the Aboriginal Advisory Group, has in recent years settled on a reburial as the best option and the plans have been ticked off by NSW and federal regulators.

Kathryn Ridge, a solicitor representing the traditional owners opposed to the reburial, said the AAG did not have legal power to give consent on behalf of the groups and said it was misleading and wrong for the state and federal governments to rely only on the consent of the AAG.

“(The traditional owners opposed to the reburial) are saying ‘They are our ancestors, we are the primary determinants of the significance of our culture, and we are concerned the proposal that the state government has … risks permanently desecrating those remains’,” she said.

“That is unacceptable without first obtaining free prior and informed consent of those peoples with that relationship to the country.”

Senior elders who are not on the board of the AAG believe the group does not represent the ­majority wishes of traditional owners, and want the reburial delayed until after overdue board elections are held this weekend.

Jason Kelly, a senior representative of the Mutthi Mutthi people, told The Australian the current AAG representatives had no authority from the Mutthi Mutthi to proceed with the “disgraceful” reburial plan.

“They have caused significant soul sickness,” he said. “Now they are rushing to ensure the destruction is complete before next Saturday’s AAG elections.”

He said governments had failed to consult directly with relevant communities and had ignored petitions from traditional owners urging them to stop.

Mark Bretsnieder, the grandson of Ngiyampaa elder Uncle Roy Kennedy, said his family was devastated by the impending burial. “This is the destruction of some of the most significant remains in the world, and our government has let it go and enabled it to happen,” he said.

“I’m out of words. It is soul-­destroying.”