Remains of Aboriginal Australians returned to their descendants by German museums

The remains of 41 Aboriginal Australians brought to Europe to be displayed in museums were returned to their descendants at a ceremony in Berlin on Monday.

The handover is the largest ever repatriation of Aboriginal remains taken from Australia during the colonial era.

Representatives of the Yawuru indigenous group from Western Australia were present at the Australian embassy in Berlin to collect the remains of seven of their ancestors from the German State Ethnographic Collections.

The ceremony comes a week after the remains of a king of the Yidindji people from northern Queensland were handed over to one of his direct descendants by the Munich Five Continents Museum.

Germany has committed itself to returning human remains from around the world held in its collections, and a total of 53 sets of Aboriginal Australian remains have been handed over in a series of ceremonies this month.

“The Australian government welcomes the return of 53 Australian indigenous ancestors this month,” Mitch Fifield, the Australian minister for communications and the arts said in a statement.

“The government would like to thank the German state governments and the collecting institutions for their commitment to recognising the significance of repatriation for all Australians, which contributes to healing and reconciliation.”

After indigenous Australians were displaced from their lands by European settlers in the 19th century, the remains of their dead were extensively plundered and brought to Europe to be studied and displayed in museums.

Some were subjected to research of the now discredited race theories later embraced by the Nazis.

German institutions to hand over Aboriginal Australian remains this month include Freiburg University, the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, and the Linden Museum of Stuttgart.

The handover follows moves by German institutions to return skulls and other remains of taken from Namibia during the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples by German colonial troops between 1904 and 1908.

As many as 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama are believed to have been systematically killed in what is now recognised as the first genocide of the 20th century.