Saxony returns Aboriginal bones to Australia
Human remains of six ancestors date back to Australia. They arrived in Saxony a good 100 years ago through looting and violence.
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A look at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig: the remains of Indigenous Australians were returned there on Thursday.
© GRASSI Ethnological Museum
Leipzig. Saxony returned the human remains to Australia from the Dresden Museum of Ethnology on Thursday. Between 1876 and 1902, the skeleton parts came to Dresden as a purchase and as a gift to the former Royal Zoological and Anthropological-Ethnographic Museum. They come from looting of graves or victims of violent conflicts.
During a ceremony at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, the Australian ambassador said his government welcomed Saxony’s willingness to acknowledge past wrongs. The return of the ancestors is “an important part of the reconciliation process”. The Australian Prime Minister’s special arts envoy, Susan Templeman, said the removal of ancestors had caused profound suffering among indigenous peoples in their country. “By bringing these ancestors home, we want to give them back the dignity they were denied when they were taken away.” The human remains belong to descendants of the Mutthi Mutthi, Worimi, Gannagal and Awabakal of New South Wales.
Thursday’s public comeback is the third in Australia. In April and November 2019, 83 deceased had already returned. All of these human bones had come to Saxony through colonial appropriation and plunder. (SZ)
