These Indigenous stone tool artefacts were never meant to sit in a display case.
Today, they returned home to the care of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation in Victoria, during a handover ceremony at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
Representing the community at the event in Canberra was Wurundjeri Elder Ron Jones.
“These artefacts were taken out of Australia when they shouldn’t have been but today is a great day,” he said.
“They have finally been brought back to their place of birth.”
The five stone tools were returned during a ceremony today. Credit: AIATSIS
Part of the return from Israel Museum
In 2019, discussions with the Israel Museum in Jerusalem led to the return of 1,800 items to Australia a year later.
The items were part of the museum’s Carl Shipman collection.
It was in the 1970s that Mr Shipman, a migrant who settled in Melbourne, donated the collection that included the stone tools to the Israel Museum.
AIATSIS CEO, Craig Ritchie, speculated on how long the stone tools may have been absent from their community.
“Today we are completing unfinished business from many, many decades ago,” he said.
“These are tools that your ancestors once held, once used in their daily lives. They link today’s Community directly to those ancestors.
“In many respects, it is the ordinary things of life that are the real stuff of culture.”
Wurundjeri Elder Ron Jones with AIATSIS CEO Craig Ritchie examining the stone tools. Credit: AIATSIS
Handing back
The handover to the Wurundjeri-Woi Wurrung community marks the first parcel of objects from the Carl Shipman collection to go back to the care of the relevant community.
Elder Ron Jones said this is only the first step in returning the many displaced Indigenous artefacts and lobbied government to do more.
“I wish more was done by our government,” he said.
“A lot of our stuff is overseas and in museums and we don’t know where it is and all of it should be brought back home.
“I want to see a museum here in Australia solely around Aboriginal history, our art, our paintings, our language.”
The collection has been repatriated with the support of the Israeli government as part of the national Return of Cultural Heritage program.
Running over four years, the program aims to facilitate the return of cultural heritage items to Indigenous communities in Australia, a project led by AIATSIS.
Mr Ritchie said relationship building forms the basis of this project.
“In this work of returning objects, we aim for respectful and productive relationships with those communities whose material is held in collecting institutions overseas,” he said.
“But we also aim for respectful relationships with the museums and other collectors who hold those materials.
“From respectful relationships come results that benefit all.”
Wurundjeri Elder Ron Jones with AIATSIS CEO Craig Ritchie and return of cultural heritage team members. Credit: AIATSIS
