Recent research has demonstrated that colonial plunder, far from being an unregulated activity – as previous scholarship has assumed – was actually highly regulated by Western law, although rarely enforced.
The article examines the collecting activities of three colonial police constables: Harry Ord (who sent Aboriginal cultural material to the British Museum), Ernest Cowle (whose collections are in the South Australian Museum and Museum Victoria) and William Willshire (whose large collection has disappeared but some objects were purchased at an auction by the South Australian Museum in the 1990s).
The article argues that more than likely police collecting was illegal under Western law and can be better described as illegal plunder.
The taking of Aboriginal objects was theft under Western law and unsupported by any colonial legal regimes.
