Two Australian Aboriginal artifacts, bark etchings and a ceremonial headdress created by the Dja Dja Wurrung tribe, were loaned to the Museum Victoria in Melbourne by the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens. They were due to be returned last week, but the Dja Dja Wurrung Native Title Group blocked the government from returning them under an aboriginal heritage protection law.
The group has applied to Victoria's state minister for a permanent order.
[Gary Murray, of the Dja Dja] said: "It's not British culture we are talking about here, we are talking about our rights as a first nation.
"We believe strongly that they connect us to our country, our culture and ancestry.
"If you haven't got a past then you haven't got a future and it is our future at stake here." [ ]
In a joint statement, the Royal Botanical Gardens and the British Museum said it was important to continue lending objects to exhibitions around the world.
"The objects lent by the British Museum and Kew to the Museum Victoria exhibition 'Etched on Bark' are part of a growing programme of worldwide loans from both institutions.
"Exhibitions of this kind, bringing rare material from collections throughout the world, provide invaluable opportunities to make available to the world public the latest research and interpretations of the objects and the human cultures that produced them.
"The emergency declaration puts at risk the very legal framework that allows such exhibitions to take place drawing on loans from Europe and America."
While that's really awesome that British lends priceless works of art to museums all around the world, I would have liked to see colonial British explain these laws to the Aboriginal people when they originally took the artifacts from them. It's a bit of Eddie Izzard's ""Do you have flag?" argument.
In my opion this is just another media stunt they would never had know that the artifacts existed if it wasn't for the poms loaning the artifacts in the first place. Yes they may have been taken from them in the first place but half the rare items around the world have been. All this stunt is going to do is prevent Australia gaing the loan of any more artifacts in the future. Also what are these poeple going to do lock it away so nobody can see it . It doesnt matter where it's held in the world but as long as it is on display for all to see and explains the history behind where it come from and the poeple it belonged to. The thing that annoys me most is that the current generation of the white population are being held responsible for the actions of those in the past . The other thing is all these groups cry out racism well how about they check the expenditure per-capita between whites and blacks and make everyone in the country equal by saying skin colour means shit your just another person . You want hand outs you all get the same.
Christopher
Portland, OR
November 2002
JUL 27, 2004 01:00 AM