Maḏarrpa clan leader and renowned artist Djambawa Marawili, who was at the forefront of advocating for the repatriation, said it was a momentous day for Yolŋu people.
Melbourne University has held Aboriginal remains and sacred cultural objects in its collection since the 1870s, and is now in the process of trying to repatriate many of them to dozens of communities across Australia.
The university’s deputy vice-chancellor (Indigenous), Barry Judd, said it was a chance to acknowledge “the wrongs of the past [and] to strengthen and heal for a better future”.
Photos ABC News: Matt Garrick
Including the ceremony in Bäniyala, 14 ancestors have been returned to the Maḏarrpa, Dhaḻwaŋu, Djapu, Dhuḏi-Djapu, Marrakulu and Maŋgalili clans in north-east Arnhem Land over the past week.
The remains were all originally collected by renowned Australian anthropologist Donald Thomson.
Professor Thomson travelled widely in remote Arnhem Land, Far North Queensland and Central Australia in the first half of last century, as well as across the Pacific, to learn about the social lives of their remote residents.
Assembled by Professor Thomson at the university between 1928 and 1965, his collection comprised more than 10,000 objects, alongside photographs, films, audio recordings, field notes, journals, maps and natural science specimens.
Melbourne University is calling for institutions around the world, including in the UK, Germany and Italy, to follow suit and work to repatriate sacred cultural objects.
