In 1878, the Burke Museum in the northeastern Victorian city of Beechworth sent a collection of Aboriginal artifacts to the Paris World’s Fair.
Key points:
- A collection of artifacts from the Kaurna village in southern Australia is being returned
- The Burke Museum wants to return its entire collection of Aboriginal artifacts to traditional owners
- An elder from Kaurna says repatriation of artifacts is an important part of the healing process
Among them were 15 objects that had been taken from the village of Kaurna, in what is now called Adelaide, and sold at the museum.
Until very recently, the Kaurna thought that objects had been lost after their trip abroad.
In fact, they returned to Beechworth and have since been seated at the Burke Museum, almost 900 miles from where they belong.
But now these items will be returned, as part of the Burke Museum’s comprehensive repatriation program.
Kaurna’s elder Jeffrey Newchurch says repatriation is part of the healing process. (ABC Radio Adelaide: Troy Sincock)
It’s a great time for Narrunga Kaurna’s husband and respected elder Jeffrey Newchurch.
“In retrieving them, I never had the words to explain it. But inside there is great relief,” Newchurch said.
“It’s very long, but we’re getting ready to take this collection home.”
An ongoing conversation
About 20 years ago, during a bad season of wildfires, many items in the Burke Museum collection were removed and stored for storage.
Among them were Kaurna artifacts, including tools, weapons, and shields.
During this process, it was investigated where the items came from and questions began to be asked as to whether they should be returned to their rightful owners.
Burke Museum manager Cameron Auty said it was part of an ongoing conversation that was happening across the entire museum industry.
“There has been a shift in the industry around who should own the artifacts, the ownership of the culture and the importance that this is.”
Mr Auty said many museums were returning ancestral remains and sacred objects, but they were one of the first museums to actively try to return the most everyday items.
“It’s a pretty important collection, the one we have, and returning them to their traditional owners is a very important thing for the museum,” he said.
The Bekeworth Burke Museum is determined to return Aboriginal artifacts to their rightful owners. (ABC News: Katherine Smyrk)
For Mr Newchurch, it is important for people to realize how important all these objects are, whether it be the remains of his ancestors that had been preserved until recently in the South Australian Museum or the large coat of arms of the Burke Museum.
“It’s about getting people to recognize that they’re not human remains or bones, as people describe them, they’re people,” he said.
“And these artifacts [from Burke Museum]they are the tools, the implementation of daily life “.
He said having items like these back in their proper place was vital.
“This is good for our younger generation in the future, but it is also good for this education, sharing this knowledge and using this collection that has been maintained and denied to us for too long.”
The reverse of the broad shield, which will be returned to the village of Kaurna. (Supplied by: Burke Museum)
The healing process
The Burke Museum had meticulous records kept by the amateur anthropologist who took the objects and sold them more than a century ago.
This made it much easier to determine who to return these items to.
A few years ago, they returned a number of important artifacts to the Dja Dja Wurrung community in downtown Victoria.
“So much indigenous cultural material was taken, displaced and sent abroad or destroyed or given to the wrong people over the last 150 years, and it’s rare, those moments, when something can come home,” he said. Auty.
“We benefited and benefited for over a century by maintaining these artifacts, and there is a small level of reconciliation benefit that we can get by working to return them.”
Dja Dja Wurrung message sticks that were donated to the Burke Museum in 2018 after various artifacts were returned. (Supplied by: Burke Museum)
Mr. Newchurch said his work on repatriation had been an important part of his healing journey, and the return of these artifacts would help him.
“I used to be one of those angry people, where you just scream and undress and the loss of energy and pain gets deeper and you never heal,” he said.
“But that allows us to deal with this pain, this trauma that always teases us as aborigines.”
He paid tribute to his elderly uncle Joe Mitchell, who said he taught him a lot about the healing process.
“We used to cry tears running inside,” he said.
“It’s been a long journey, but it allows you to have that scream out, and you’re not ashamed. That’s the beauty.”
Mr. Auty hopes the work at the Burke Museum will inspire others to take the plunge.
“It’s often a very discouraging thing. A lot of museums have these collections and they think, ‘I don’t know what to do with it,'” he said.
“It’s a learning process for everyone, and if we’re one step ahead of other museums, we’ll be happy to help them.”
Mr Newchurch said it is very powerful to work with so many different people to do things right.
“It’s a process, and we know it will have this effect of growth across society,” he said.
“It is these opportune moments that will be built together, with non-Aboriginal people, with the private sector and with governments.
“We open the door because we need you to walk with us.”