An Indigenous Family Wants A Sacred Shield Returned From Britain

[Judi Lynn]

An Indigenous Family Wants A Sacred Shield Returned From Britain

A bullet hole in the shield tells the story of what really happened when Captain Cook landed in 1770.


posted on May 31, 2016, at 11:37 p.m.



Now, the descendants of the Gweagal people from the Tharawal tribe have launched a crowdfunding campaign in a bid to raise money to travel to London and negotiate with the British Museum, where the shield is currently held, to have it returned permanently to Australia.

“I’ve given the British Museum a claim of right, I told them that my ancestors own the artefacts and we wish for them to be returned,” Rodney Kelly, a descendant of the Gweagal clan, told BuzzFeed News.

“We’ve got our own museums (In Australia) and it’s clear the shield was taken from Botany Bay. They didn’t pay for it, it was taken. It’s written in the journals of Captain Cook. It clearly doesn’t belong to them.”

“As we approached the shore they all made off, except two Men, who seemed resolved to oppose our landing,” Cook wrote.

More:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/allanclarke/indigenous-family-wants-sacred-shield-back-from-uk?utm_term=.bsQlWkG9gr#.ovJ1y0Jdj7

[yeoman6987]

1. This may be a big fight

Did the museum pay for it? Was it given through inheritance. I'd love to see how this plays out. Might be a landmark case.

[MADem]

3. +1. nt

[applegrove]

2. There was a man in canada who struck it rich in oil. He used his fortune to buy

back Canadian indigenous artifacts from European museums and other collections in the 1950s and 1960s. We were very lucky that way.