UK High Commission returning Indigenous artefacts to Tennant Creek

A collection of culturally significant Indigenous artefacts are being returned, after being taken from Australia to the UK, more than a century ago.

Transcript

00:00Representatives, including traditional owners from the Wurrumbungu community in the town

00:08of Tennen Creek in the Northern Territory, have travelled here to London to receive several

00:13Indigenous artefacts which were taken from their home country and brought here to the

00:18UK in the early 1900s.

00:22Traditional owners believe the items were exchanged for other goods and were mainly

00:26used for hunting.

00:27We're pretty much happy, you know, like, because, you know, these stuff have been taken

00:33away over 120 years ago, you know, and like we've gone back home, it's a really special

00:40thing, you know.

00:41These are artefacts that old people sat down and had a look at it and cried about them

00:48and said straight away, we want them to come back home.

00:52I'm part of a stolen generation and we aren't accepted in terms like this, but with this

01:04happening now, we've got a coming together of two different cultures.

01:09The handover is taking place at the Horniman Museum and Gardens as part of the Federal

01:13Government's Return of Cultural Heritage program.

01:16For more than 300 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural material has been

01:21taken from country and placed in overseas collections.

01:25These pieces will be temporarily taken to Canberra before they're ready to be received

01:30on country where they will be displayed at an exhibition in Tennant Creek.