Danby repatriates Remains

PARLIAMENTARY Secretary for the Arts and Federal Member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby helped facilitate the repatriation of stolen Aboriginal Ancestral Remains at a historic ceremony, held at the Charité Medical University in Berlin last Friday.

The handover ceremony was coordinated by the Australian government, Australia’s Indigenous communities and the Berlin university – a prestigious teaching hospital and medical museum in possession of some of the Remains.

The university also agreed to gather the Remains stored in museums in other parts of Germany. The Remains are believed to have been collected by explorers and scientists from the time of the British settlement, right up to the 1950s, and were subsequently sent to museums in Britain and other European countries.

Danby said he hopes the participation of the Berlin institution would set an example for others in Europe.

“The example the Charité has set, in agreeing to the repatriation of these Ancestral Remains, will be highly influential across Europe. It will help persuade other museums and other governments that the return of Indigenous Ancestral Remains is the right and just thing to do, and is a process that they should embrace and not fear,” Danby said. “On behalf of the government, I express my deep appreciation and thanks to the leaders of the Charité for their willingness to engage with this process, and for their recognition of the importance that Australia’s Indigenous peoples, and indeed all Australians, attach to the return of Indigenous Ancestral Remains and sacred objects to their rightful owners.”

The delegation included the German Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with Australia and New Zealand, the Australian Ambassador to Germany and representatives of various communities that were robbed of their Remains.

TIMNA JACKS

Michael Danby (second from left).

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