Reposted from ABCnet

Around 1,700 First Nations ancestors have been returned from overseas collecting institutions and private collections since 1990, including 139 from America. The Australian government said it continued to work closely with the National Museum to progress the repatriation of other ancestors still held in its care. Nyamba Buru Yawuru cultural coordinator Dianne Appleby said bringing home ancestors exposed the dark history that saw them taken from country in the first place. "We have to talk about the tragedy and the trauma and to make sense of these events," she said. She spoke about the massacres inflicted on Yawuru people, knowledge and stories of which were passed down by her grandmother, which led to the theft of ancestral remains. "They never understood the tragedies, why they were killed and taken away, and they took the bones away, it's like taking the children away," Ms Appleby said. "We are very sad. With an additional 36 sets of remains still held by overseas institutions — the majority in Europe — the project remains a long-term one for the Yawuru community.

The Yawuru man's remains will be held in a specially constructed room at the WA Museum, which will act as a caretaker. Mr McKenzie said the plan was to eventually build a holding place in Broome and bring ancestors back home on Yawuru country, but there were still cultural practices that needed to be established. “We haven't structured a way of how we rebury the dead ... we only bury our dead and we have to find a way of reburying our dead," he said. Ross Chadwick, the museum's head of archaeology and anthropology, has been involved in the repatriation project for more than 20 years. "The community come to us occasionally to request that we care for their ancestors when there's not a suitable place or a suitable location for them to be taken back to on country," Dr Chadwick said. Dr Chadwick said the museum was constantly working to return ancestors to their traditional lands, while currently caring for around 120 ancestral remains. "The Western Australian Museum is privileged to be able to do this on behalf of community and it is a significant event for them," he said.

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