A California museum will returnto a First Nations community in the NT.
It follows three years of negotiations between the University of California’s Fowler Museum and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra.
The items will be returned to the Warumungu community of Tennant Creek, a regional town about halfway between Alice Springs and Darwin.
Artefacts returning to the NT
The items being returned include clubs, knives, and a boomerang.
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Half of the items were given to the Fowler Museum by private collectors, while the other half were from pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome, who collected medical artefacts.
The Wellcome Collection, a Londonwhich has displayedhe collected, says many “were unjustly taken from the people and communities who made them” and sold to him at auction.
The artefacts will be temporarily held at AIATSIS before being permanently moved to the Nyinkka Nyunyu Arts and Cultural Centre in Tennant Creek.
Warumungu community members who were involved in the return of items say it’s a significant part of cultural preservation.
