Artefact and bone collectors apologise for past wrongs
A historic apology has been delivered to Tasmania’s Aboriginal community as specimen collectors acknowledge their practices were racist and morally wrong, saying it “will never happen again”.
Tasmania
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TASMANIA’S Aboriginal community has received a historic apology for the racist desecration and disrespect shown to human remains and other artefacts by two local organisations as they collected natural history specimens.
The Royal Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery made the apology in an emotional ceremony in Hobart on Monday.
It was accepted by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Michael Mansell who did so on behalf of “those sent to Wybalenna, those pushed into slum housing at Invermay and those discriminated against in pubs and places of employment” and current generations.
“This unreserved apology is long overdue. We acknowledge the Royal Society exhumed and purchased remains of Aboriginal people for scientific study – some of which were sent out of the country,” society president Mary Koolhof said.
“There was a lack of regard for the deep cultural and spiritual significance of remains.”
The remains of Truganini were taken against her express wishes to be buried in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel so her body could not be cut up like those of other indigenous residents.
“Remains were also held without care or respect,” Ms Koolhof said.
“The actions of some members of the society legitimised the mistreatment of the Aboriginal people and their material culture. The society also opposed requests for return of remains and for all this we are sorry.”
She promised seek full accounts of the past actions of the society and its members and support repatriation of artefacts when asked.
TMAG Chair Brett Torossi said the organisation had now “owned” past practices which were morally wrong, racist and profoundly disrespectful.
“The Board wants to permanently record and apologise for the institution’s actions and declare such behaviour will never happen again,” Ms Torossi said.
“It is heartbreaking to consider the trauma inflicted. We commit to a future to defend and illuminate Tasmanian Aboriginal culture”
Tasmanian Governor Kate Warner – patron of both organisations – said the acts of desecration and disrespect were accompanied by the assertion of extinction.
“We now look to the future with an aim to change the narrative.”
The apologies come as plans to return rock carvings taken from Tasmania’s far north west progress.
Sixty years ago, ancient Tasmanian Aboriginal petroglyphs were cut out of rock near Marrawah, thrown on the back of a flatbed truck and roughly transported from the far North-West to be displayed at museums in Hobart and Launceston.
Pieces of the rock, which was a record of thousands of years of Aboriginal history, broke off as the truck rumbled along.
The petroglyphs show major events such as the sighting of Halley’s comet, the death of great Aboriginal warriors, where village communities were, and the tracks that carried people between them.
Now, after an almost 40-year fight by Aboriginal leaders, the petroglyphs are going home.
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