Indigenous artefacts returned after decades in English museum

September 22, 2023 2:41 AM

"The first time I saw them it made me cry": Indigenous artefacts returned after decades in English museum. A vast collection of Indigenous artefacts kept in England for decades is being returned to the Northern Territory, ending an emotional years-long repatriation process.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (5 comments total)

The stinger is that the stuff was never displayed, and I suspect that it was probably never even studied.

Good on them for returning it all.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:11 AM on September 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

More coverage (and photos): National Indigenous Times, Museums Association, BBC, Smithsonian, Sydney Morning Herald. For the search engines: these are being returned to the Anindilyakwa community on Groote Eylandt in northern Australia.

Some of the objects were displayed. Including the shell dolls, which all the reporting mentions as the highlight of the collection. They are beautiful and I'd love to understand more in detail about them. There's something similar in the collection of the Australian Museum in Sydney.
posted by Nelson at 7:43 AM on September 22, 2023

I'm glad. Repatriation issues aren't always straightforward, but there certainly should be a presumption in favor of return.
posted by praemunire at 10:09 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Proper.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 1:45 PM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Beautiful. It's sometimes nice to see people not doubling down or circling the wagons but just - yeah, it's not right for us to have this. Doesn't belong to us, belongs to you.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:19 PM on September 24, 2023