[MSN] British museum to return Aboriginal remains

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

British museum to return Aboriginal remains
Email Print Normal font Large font November 19, 2006 - 11:16AM

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has welcomed a British museum's
decision to return Aboriginal remains.

Britain's Natural History Museum has agreed to return the remains of 18
Aborigines to Australia.

But the museum will delay the repatriation of most of the remains, those of
17 Tasmanian Aborigines, for several months while it conducts scientific
tests on them.

The skull of an 18th person, which was stolen from Australia in 1913, will
be returned immediately.

"We acknowledge our decision may be questioned by community groups or by
some scientists," Natural History Museum director Michael Dixon said in a
statement.

"However, we believe the decision to return the Tasmanian remains, following
a short period of data collection, is a commonsense one that balances the
requirements of all those with an interest in the remains."

Testing would start in January and take about three months, the museum said.

Mr Brough welcomed the decision to return the remains but described the
delay as regrettable.

"It would be my preference that all the remains be returned immediately," he
said.

The decision to return the remains, which include teeth and bones, follows a
claim lodged by the Australian government in November last year and a
request from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

The Natural History Museum defended the decision to conduct tests on the
items.

"Many of the Tasmanian remains in the museum represent people from a time
when Tasmania was isolated from the rest of the world, so they are
genetically different from other human populations, including those in
mainland Australia," the museum said.

"The differences that continue to be identified tell us more about how
people reached the island, how they lived and how those people were linked
with other human groups."

Any material removed during imaging, measurement and DNA analysis would be
replaced so the items could be returned in a complete state, it said.

The announcement follows the return of cremated Aboriginal remains to
Tasmania's indigenous community in September, after they had been in British
museums for more than 100 years.

AAP