Since the introduction of the Human Tissue Act, Aboriginal Australians have had a huge number of successes in retrieving artefacts from British Institutions. If other restitution cases are to be successful there are many lessons that can be learned from observing the various steps that led to this current situation with regards to Aboriginal artefacts.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Museum returns old Aboriginal skull to Australia
The skull of an indigenous Aboriginal Australian taken from the country 100 years ago and kept by a British museum has been handed back.
Last Updated: 7:55PM BST 13 May 2009

Little is known about the remains, thought to date back to the 19th century, which were returned to members of the Ngarrindjeri during a ceremony in Liverpool on Wednesday.

The remains were bought from Dr William Broad, of Liverpool, in 1948 after he visited Australia between 1902 and 1904 and published works on skeletal remains in the country.
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Yet another return of human remains from a UK museum to an Australian aboriginal community. A sign that where there is a will to do so, Museums & other institutions are able to see the requirement to return artefacts to their original owners.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

UK to return more Aboriginal remains
January 7, 2009 – 6:52PM

Another set of Aboriginal remains held at a British museum for almost a century are to be returned to Australia.

Two skulls and two thigh bones kept by the Booth Museum of Natural History, in Brighton, East Sussex, are expected to be repatriated within days.
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Normally one hears about cases of artefacts whose original context has been destroyed after the event rather than before. In this case though, a campaign is underway to protect Aboriginal rock carvings in Western Australia.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Garrett urged to protect cave art from extraction
Marian Wilkinson, Environment Editor
September 13, 2008

A CAMPAIGN to win World Heritage listing for the Aboriginal rock carvings on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia threatens to push the Rudd Government into a confrontation with the energy giant Woodside Petroleum.

The Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, is coming under pressure from archaeologists, led by the head of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations, Robert Bednarik, to nominate the site. It is believed to hold the largest concentration of rock art in the world and is possibly the first site of human habitation in Australia.
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Following on from their successes in Scotland, the Ngarrindjeri have also collected skulls of their ancestors from Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum to be returned to Australia.

It is worth remembering again, that the current reunifications of Aboriginal artefacts only happened after a change in the law allowed many of the countries larger museums to over-rule the anti-deaccessioning clauses in their own charters & return these pieces. Once various key institutions had returned pieces, many smaller museums and galleries followed their example.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 09:48 GMT, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 10:48 UK
Aboriginal skulls returning home

Four Aboriginal skulls, which have formed part of a British museum’s collection for more than 100 years, are to be returned to Australia.

The 19th century human remains were donated to Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum by someone who claimed to have been given them.
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ABC Television in Australia has produced a program about the Parthenon Marbles as part of their Foreign Correspondent series.

From:
ABC (Australia)

Greece – Losing their Marbles
Broadcast: 07/10/2008
Reporter: Helen Vatsikopoulos
LEAD STORY, SERIES 18, EPISODE 15
Synopsis

The Acropolis, framed by the pillars of the Parthenon, is one of the most important ancient monuments in the world – a constant reminder of the glory days of Greece.

“Every Athenian has a difficult life, has to earn a living, but at any moment he can raise his eyes and look at the Acropolis and nothing is so bad at that moment,” says the head of the new museum, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis.
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Despite setbacks along the way, after ten years of campaigning, the Ngarrindjeri tribe are accepting the return of a number of Aboriginal artefacts from institutions in Scotland. Like many other such repatriations made in recent years, this has only been made possible by a change in the law in the form of the Human Tissue Act 2004.

From:
The Times

From The Times
July 8, 2008
Scotland hands back Aborigine relics
Charlene Sweeney

With a simple but symbolic whorl of smoke, a group of Aborigines began the long-awaited process of repatriating their ancestors’ remains from a Scottish museum to their homeland.

The Ngarrindjeri, who have been campaigning for the return of the relics for ten years, sent a delegation to Edinburgh to accept ownership of six Aborigine skulls from the National Museums of Scotland, and a fragment of a woman’s skull from the University of Edinburgh.
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A proposal to reunite the Parthenon sculptures has been tabled in West Australia’s State Legislative Assembly. This follows on from last year’s expressions of support by both the Premier of New South Wales & by John Howard, Australia’s then Prime Minister.

From:
Athens News Agency

06/23/2008
Parthenon marbles repatriation

A proposal for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece was tabled in the State Legislative Assembly of Western Australia by governing Labor Party (ALP) member John Biase D’ Orazio.
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Australia’s Charles Darwin University is hosting a lecture on The global campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
Charles Darwin University

Battle over ‘Marbles’ spans two centuries
29 April 2008

Charles Darwin University will hold a free public lecture this week presenting, “The global campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles”.

The founder and chairman of the International Organising Committee Australia for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, Mr Emanuel J. Comino will speak about his campaign to return the “world’s greatest single collection of classical Greek sculptures” to Greece.
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The return of aboriginal remains is a debate that has been ongoing for some time. The government has commissioned a legal report, due to be completed next month, that is expected to be sympathetic to the issue. Many scientists are very upset at the idea that museums may have to return any of these remains however.

From:
The Age (Melbourne)

Science versus sanctity
May 26 2003

Britain is considering whether to return ancient Aboriginal remains to Australia, and UK scientists are up in arms. Peter Fray reports.

Playing the reluctant scientist, Chris Stringer would have you believe he was “pushed”. But the reality is, he jumped, feet first, into one of the hottest scientific and cultural debates on the planet: who owns ancient remains? Is it the world’s museums or the descendants of traditional societies?
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Former Australian Broadcasting Corporation boss, David Hill, a campaigner for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, is confident that they will soon be sent back to Athens.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Marbles are back in play
March 19 2003

Although the British Museum has refused to give up the Elgin marbles, a group led by former ABC boss David Hill is confident it can get them back to the Parthenon. Geraldine O’Brien reports.

This week, in a speech in Athens, the former ABC boss, David Hill, confidently predicted an end to the long-running and acrimonious dispute between Greece and Britain over the Parthenon marbles. (It is a point of honour in some circles to refer to them as the Parthenon, rather than Elgin, marbles, thereby honouring their origin rather than the British ambassador who somewhat dubiously “acquired” them in 1801.)
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Museums in the UK are coming out strongly in criticism of suggestions that they should return Aboriginal artefacts in their collections. It is thought that some of this unwillingness stems from their fears that such a move would weaken their case for the continuing retention of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Is it altruism or the fear of losing their marbles?
December 28 2002

Powerful forces are working to convince the British Government that the place for Aboriginal remains is London’s museums, writes Peter Fray.

“The race is a very degraded one and … even the coarse traders and cattle-ranchers make no irregular unions with their women so the race remains pure.” – Dr Arthur Gedge, circa 1900.
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Co-operation between the British & Australian government is leading towards the proposed return of various Aboriginal artefacts involving human remains, currently held in the UK’s Museums. Museums are trying to block any changes to the law that would allow this, partly out of a fear that such artefact returns would then lead to them having to return items such as the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
The Age (Melbourne)

Return of remains at risk
December 18 2002
By Peter Fray
Europe Correspondent
London

Britain’s long-running dispute with Greece over the return of the Elgin Marbles sculptures threatens to stall Australian efforts to repatriate thousands of Aboriginal remains from leading British museums.

Members of an independent British working group, due to report on the export of human remains, say they have recently been warned against recommending law reforms that might indirectly assist the Greeks.
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