‘Disrespect and lack of dignity’: Federal Greens Senator slams treatment of Aboriginal remains

“An outrage and a stain on our government … that an act like this would still occur today.” Backlash continues after Aboriginal bones were dropped off in brown paper bags to a Hobart office.

Senator Dorinda Cox, the Greens First Nations spokesperson, has slammed the way ancient human remains were returned to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Backlash is continuing after ancient Aboriginal bones were simply dropped off in brown paper bags to a Hobart reception desk last week.

The bones, dating back as early as 772AD and found in two separate discoveries at Carlton Beach and the Shank on the west coast, were returned in paper bags on Friday by the state’s Coronial Division to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) reception desk.

TAC campaign coordinator Nala Mansell said no contact was made beforehand, and that requests to the Coronial Division for help in repatriating the remains to their homelands had been ignored.

Tasmanian Aboriginal leader Nala Mansell. Picture: Linda Higginson

Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, the party’s First Nations spokesperson, while visiting Hobart this week slammed the “disrespect and lack of dignity” in the way the remains were returned to Tasmania’s Aboriginal community.

“We deserve, under Australian law through all levels of government, the respect and dignity for the peace and justice of our old people,” she said.

“Still on the coastlines of our nation are remains, ancestral remains of our old people being found. And in the process of climate change, they are washing up on the shores.

“They are being exposed, and yet governments of Australia are failing First Nations people by not advising the custodians and traditional owners of their country about those findings.”

Senator Cox said it was vital that First Nations people were able to “reclaim that process of ceremony” and could take “our people back to where they belong” – but this power was being taken from them by government interference.

Tasmanian Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said the incident was “an outrage”.

“Tasmanian Aboriginal people suffer ongoing impacts of colonisation every day,” she said.

“The response of the coroner’s office to the treatment of Aboriginal remains is an outrage and it is a stain on our government and the institutions of the government that an act like this would still occur today.

“It shows a sincere and deep lack of understanding from the coroner’s office for how they need to treat Aboriginal remains, and very importantly, how they need to speak with, engage with and understand the wishes and desires of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.”

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff says the incident is a “stain” on the government.

An unnamed spokesperson said the Tasmanian government was “deeply disappointed to hear the reports of insensitive treatment of Aboriginal remains”.

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Guy Barnett is seeking advice from the Department of Justice about the “appropriateness” of existing provisions under the Coroners Act.

“We are committing to address the process for the treatment of Aboriginal remains in our Aboriginal Engagement Guidelines,” the government spokesperson said.

They said it was understood the ancient remains were referred to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre “as soon as information became available to the coroner” indicating the bones were Aboriginal remains.

The Coronial Division has advised it would provide “no further comment” on the matter.

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