For decades, the ancestor’s remains sat in a box labelled “Queen of the Warlbiri” at the Adelaide dental school.
In the 1960s, a pastoralist who found the remains at Pikilyi/Vaughan Springs, near Yuendumu in the central Australian desert, handed them to a missionary. That missionary then gave them to researchers from the University of Adelaide’s dental school.
The remains were taken to Adelaide, likely for further dental study, without the community’s permission or knowledge. Decades later, in 2018, South Australian museum staff identified them as belonging to a Warlbiri (Warlpiri) man.
On Tuesday morning, that ancestor – who was originally misidentified as a woman – was returned home as part of the Warlpiri Project, which works to repatriate remains and sacred objects.
Earlier this month, the project brought hundreds of photos, drawings and sacred objects back from the US, where they had been part of the late anthropologist Nancy Munn’s collection.
Warlpiri elders, SA Museum staff and Richard Logan, the dental school’s dean, flew with the ancestor from Adelaide to Alice Springs on Monday, then accompanied him to Yuendumu, where he was greeted with a public ceremony, speeches and dancing.
Elder Warren Japanangka Williams said the community was ready for the ancestor to arrive, and had prepared one of the biggest celebrations they’d ever had.
“It’s something very special,” he said.
Logan said the school had a long history working with the Warlpiri community through dental research.
“The research that was undertaken was successful because of the mutual respect that existed between the community and the researchers,” he said.
“Over the years, however, practices that were not considered appropriate by today’s standards did occur and it was wrong that, in this case, the ancestor’s remains were taken back to Adelaide in the 1960s without the permission of the community.”
SA Museum’s head of humanities, John Carty, said: “We’re so sorry.”
The museum’s Aboriginal heritage and repatriation manager, Anna Russo, said she felt “real relief” that the ancestor was on his way home.
A group of men then took the ancestor to the chosen reburial site near Pikilyi where they stayed with him overnight.
