The Long Way Home: The Meaning and Values of Repatriation

The Long Way Home: The meaning and values of repatriation Paul Turnbull and Michael Pickering (eds) 2010 Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford, 207pp, ISBN 9781845459581 This volume brings together a collection of chapters largely drawn from papers presented at a muhidisciplinary conference about the meanings and values of repatriation that was held at the Australian National University in September 2005. Convened by Paul Turnbull, Michael Pickering and Howard Morphy, the conference provided an opportunity to review the landscape of repatriation some 25 years after the reburial movement had commenced in Australia. The editors of this volume (Turnbull and Pickering) have compiled a useful series of chapters, the breadth of which also demonstrates their own long involvement in repatriation issues. The volume brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous expertise from a variety of disciplines and sectors to reflect on repatriation developments over the previous quarter century, and the continuing issues faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in securing the return and (re)burial of their ancestors housed in museums in Australia and overseas. In doing so, the book contributes to understanding about the history of the acquisition and use of human remains, the efforts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to retrieve their dead, and the complexities of the practicalities faced by museums and Indigenous groups to ensure that the deceased are returned in a respectful and culturally appropriate manner to the right people and the right place. The volume is also important because it provides a window on the history of the reburial movement in the early years of the twenty-first century and demonstrates that while so much has been achieved, there is also much yet to be done. The book contains 14 chapters from repatriation researchers and practitioners (and these groups are, of course, not mutually exclusive) in Australia, Sweden, Canada and the United Kingdom. It is divided into five sections, which provide a broad overview of the range of overlapping issues inherent in repatriation, as well as the type of detailed and specific information that is necessary to understand the impact of repatriation on individuals, families and communities. It covers the importance of repatriation to Aboriginal people and the reasons why the dead were stolen, and explores the scientific intellectual environment that fuelled this. It looks at the impact this practice had on Indigenous people and their tenacity in securing repatriation, the influence that Indigenous campaigning has had on shifting ideology and practice in museum and academic professions, and the degree to which law and museum policy has hindered or assisted Indigenous wishes. Turnbull's useful introduction provides a brief history of the repatriation movement in Australia and sets out the context in which the 2005 conference was developed. Both chapters in the first section ('Ancestors, not specimens') are contributed by Aboriginal people with extensive experience of repatriation. The first is authored by Henry Atkinson, a Wolithigia Elder and spokesperson for the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation who has worked for many years to secure the return of Aboriginal remains to his traditional country. Entitled 'The meanings and values of repatriation', Atkinson describes how the dead were removed and the importance of their return, articulating strongly a clear link between the removal and scientific use of remains and the past and present mistreatment of Aboriginal people today. In tracking developments in the reburial movement nationally and internationally, Franchesca Cubillo's chapter, 'Repatriating our ancestors: Who will speak for the dead', asks what can be learned from past experience. Cubillo, a leading museums and galleries professional and a Larrakia woman, echoes Atkinson's point that extensive work still needs to be done. …

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