Latest news with #TasmanianAboriginalCentre
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Tasmanian government releases 4WD track management plan, as Aboriginal groups flag legal fight
A decade-long fight over four-wheel-driving in areas of Tasmania's north-west rich in Aboriginal cultural sites may not be over, despite the government releasing a new management strategy. The day after the strategy was released, members of the Aboriginal community spoke out in opposition and called for more consultation. In the run up to the 2014 election the Liberals — who have been in government since that election — promised to reopen three off-road tracks in the Arthur Pieman Conservation Area (APCA). The tracks had been closed by the previous government amid concerns for several cultural sites, which included middens and burial grounds. The closures prompted protests at Smithton and fierce statewide debate before a Federal Court ruling in 2016 found in favour of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre that the area had an "outstanding heritage value to the nation". Five years later, in 2021, an Aboriginal heritage report found cultural sites could not be adequately preserved if the tracks were reopened, and the government backed down. The government then embarked on the development of the West Coast Off-Road Vehicle Strategy, which Parks Minister Nick Duigan now says will help sustainably manage existing four-wheel-drive tracks in the area "while ensuring natural and cultural values are respected and protected". Mr Duigan said the strategy would be rolled out over the next three years, and featured plans to upgrade tracks and mitigate damage to cultural and environmental values, improve camping facilities, directional signage and interpretive information. The Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) website breaks down the plan over the next three years, beginning with work on the Balfour and Sandy Cape tracks and facilities and including Aboriginal heritage assessment in the area. In the second year the PWS plans to expand the work to the wider West Coast and collaborate with Tasmanian Aboriginal people to identify and protect heritage sites near existing tracks. In the third year the plan is to introduce a driver pass system to the wider west coast, improve information services, develop marketing material and support tourism experiences. Mr Duigan said investments would be made in capital infrastructure to allow the PWS to implement the strategy over the coming years. The strategy follows a draft version, which was published in May 2024 ahead of a two-month public comment period, which received more than 180 submissions. In a statement for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania and Cape Barren Aboriginal Association, spokesperson Michael Mansell said the strategy had its priorities "back to front". "Instead of focusing on protecting Aboriginal heritage, the report emphasises improving access to 4WD," Mr Mansell said. "The focus of government action should be protection of Aboriginal cultural context on the west coast and access proposals should only be considered in that context." Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre chief executive, Heather Sculthorpe, said her organisation had not been involved in the development of the strategy. She said she was concerned the government may attempt to reopen the closed tracks, but the strategy report says it "does not contemplate opening new tracks or reopening previously closed tracks". Submissions were made during the draft strategy's public comment period by other Tasmanian Aboriginal groups, including by Rochelle Godwin from the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation (CHAC). In her submission, Ms Godwin said CHAC failed "to see actionable or tangible outcomes" throughout the draft strategy to ensure the views of Tasmanian Aboriginal people were represented in the strategy. She said there was no detail in the draft about how protection of Aboriginal heritage would be achieved. "CHAC believe that protection can be achieved through mutual respect and education of cultural values," Ms Godwin said. "For this to have effect, it needs to be reiterated and encouraged at many points along the coastline." Her call for education was echoed by Lyndon Kettle, president of the Devonport 4WD Club. Mr Kettle said he supported ongoing access to off-road tracks in the region but also believes the Aboriginal cultural history in the area must be protected, and that visitors should be better educated. He supported a suggestion by Ms Godwin that anyone seeking a permit to access the area be required to watch a short film about Aboriginal history and culture in the APCA and wider west coast. He said he had come across rock carvings and other historic sites in the area that should be protected and signposted to educate others. Ms Sculthorpe said the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre would be willing to continue the fight. "We'll be looking at all our options, that's for sure," she said. Mr Mansell said the groups were willing to take the matter to court again, just as they did after the 2014 election. Mr Duigan said consultation with stakeholders, including Tasmanian Aboriginal people, would continue during the implementation of the strategy.
CNN
29-03-2025
- General
- CNN
Remains of murdered Australian Aboriginal man repatriated by British university
The skull of an Aboriginal man who is thought to have been killed by colonizers in the early 19th century has been returned for burial in Tasmania from a British university. The remains of the unidentified young man will be laid to rest in a ceremonial burial on the Australian island on Friday, the University of Aberdeen said in a statement published Wednesday. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, which will hold the long-delayed burial, was first contacted by the Scottish university in 2019 with a proposal for repatriation. This was approved the following year. Details of how the university came to be in possession of the skull – which is missing its lower jaw – are limited, the university said. What is known is that it was part of the collection of William MacGillivray, professor of natural history at Marischal College, a forerunner of the modern Aberdeen University. When MacGillivray died in 1852, the university bought his collection. The sale catalog from that purchase described the remains as belonging to a 'native of Van Diemen's Land, who was shot on the Shannon River.' Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name for Tasmania. There is no surviving record to explain how the skull was acquired. It was initially kept in the university's comparative anatomy collection before being transferred to its human culture collection in the early 2000s. Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used to teach medicine. According to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, which is quoted in the university statement, there is 'no doubt that this skull was removed from the man shot at the Shannon River in order to service (the) trade in Aboriginal body parts.' It went on to say of the killing, which probably took place in the 1820s or 1830s: 'The decapitation was most likely performed by one of the killers, stock-keepers, property owners or lessees involved in or associated with the man's murder.' While the man's identity is unlikely to ever be established, the statement said, he is known to have been part of the Big River tribe, which was completely wiped out. Andry Sculthorpe, of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, stressed the importance of repatriation. He said: 'Aboriginal people feel the enormous responsibility of restoring to our own country both the physical remains, and through them, the spirits of our ancestral dead. 'This is a record of racist attitudes to the study of humanity, including human remains acquired by grave robbing and other immoral activity; in this case, murder. 'We applaud the institutions that have the courage to let go of their perceptions of intellectual supremacy, embrace their own humanity and do what is right by the people who are most impacted by the atrocities they have inflicted in the past. This young man's murder will not be forgotten and we will bring him home to rest at last.' The University of Aberdeen said it has 'a well-established procedure for considering repatriation from the collections in its care' and previous returns have included a Benin bronze, returned to Nigeria in 2021. Neil Curtis, the university's head of museums and special collections, said: 'Given the violence and racism that led to their acquisition, it would be unacceptable for these ancestral remains to be used for research, teaching or exhibitions purposes. 'We are pleased that the remains of this young man can now be handed over to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for appropriate burial in his homeland.'
The Guardian
27-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘Spirit will be set free': remains of young Aboriginal man returned to Tasmania after 170 years in UK
After more than 170 years at a Scottish university, the remains of a young Aboriginal man killed on his traditional land have returned home. The skull of the unknown man was taken from Tasmania in the 1830s and had been held by the University of Aberdeen since the early 1850s. It is understood he was part of the Big River tribe and was shot at Shannon river in the island state's Central Highlands. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre's Andry Sculthorpe and elder Jeanette James arrived in Hobart with the remains on Thursday. They also brought back a shell necklace, made by a woman on a Bass Strait island in the 1880s, from the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum. The centre, which had fought for the return of the necklace since 1994, says it is the first overseas return of a Tasmanian cultural item in 27 years. 'This repatriation is a crucial moment for our community,' the centre's Nala Mansell said. 'It acknowledges past injustices and allows us to bring our ancestor home to country, where his spirit will be set free as he is laid to rest in his traditional homelands.' The University of Aberdeen contacted the centre in 2019 and proposed returning the remains. A ceremony was held in Scotland earlier in March to hand over the skull, which had been used for teaching in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 'We are pleased that the remains of this young man can now be handed over ... for appropriate burial in his homeland,' the University of Aberdeen head of collections, Neil Curtis, said. Details of how the university acquired the skull are limited but records suggest it was purchased after 1852 as part of a collection. It was catalogued at the time as 'Native of Van Diemen's Land, who was shot on the Shannon River'. The necklace is 148cm long and features elenchus or maireener shells found off the coast of Tasmania. Requests from the centre for its return were rejected in 1995 and 2002 on the grounds there was no evidence that its acquisition was unethical. The centre has thanked both universities for their co-operation and has flagged the return of other remains and cultural items from UK institutions. 'The (centre) has been repatriating our ancestral remains since the 1970s,' Sculthorpe said. 'The difference now is institutions that previously wouldn't meet with us ... and outright refused to discuss returns are now saying 'let's talk'. 'We feel that is a positive step and the tide is turning.'
Miami Herald
26-03-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Egg-laying mammal — feared locally extinct after wildfire — rediscovered in Australia
On a small island off the southern coast of Australia, a spiky mammal emerged from the forest and walked through a clearing. Its brief appearance, captured by a nearby trail camera, turned out to be 'monumental.' For the past two years, rangers with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre set up trail cameras across Clarke Island, also known as Lungtalanana Island, to survey the 'remaining wildlife,' World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia said in a March 19 news release. The trail cameras are one part of an ambitious plan to 'restore the island' and bring back 'culturally significant native species' after 'European colonization wiped out most native species,' WWF said. Rangers were recently reviewing trail camera images when they saw 'a totally unexpected sight': an echidna, the organization said. Echidnas are egg-laying, insect-eating mammals native to Australia, according to the Australian Museum. The country has only one species, the short-beaked echidna, which can be found throughout the mainland. 'For decades, no one had seen an echidna on Lungtalanana Island,' WWF Australia said in a March 19 Facebook post. After a 'devastating' wildfire in 2014, echidnas were feared locally extinct. But these trail camera photos proved otherwise. Photos show the spiky, brown and white echidna walking in a clearing. The photos were taken in August and November 2023 and probably show the same echidna, conservationists said. 'We the Pakana Rangers were so excited to discover the island still had trimanya,' the name for echidna in the aboriginal palawa kani language, according to Kulai Sculthorpe, a Pakana Ranger supervisor. 'The importance of having trimanya back on the island is monumental,' Sculthorpe said in the release. 'These little guys will fit in perfectly to the cultural landscape we are trying to reinstate there, especially with the ecological values they bring.' But is this echidna the last one on Clarke Island? Or are there more hiding out there? Rangers don't know yet but 'are determined to find out,' WWF said. 'For all the hardships our Country has faced and also our community it's the little moments like these that really ignite the fire underneath us all and provide that hope there is a future where our Country can be healthy again,' Sculthorpe said. Clarke Island sits off the southern coast of mainland Australia and north of Tasmania.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Uni hands back murdered Aboriginal man's remains
The University of Aberdeen has repatriated a murdered Aboriginal man's remains, thought to have been obtained during a colonial conquest in Tasmania. It is believed the young man was decapitated near the Shannon River on the island in the 1820s or 1830s - a time in Australia's history when colonisers used bounties to fuel a trade in tribespeople's body parts. The university contacted the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in 2019 following pressure on institutions to return exhibits linked with Britain's colonial past. The remains, held at the university since the 1850s, were handed back on Friday, to be taken to Tasmania and laid to rest in a traditional ceremony conducted by Aboriginal people. In 2019, the University of Glasgow agreed to raise and spend £20m in reparations after discovering it benefited by millions of pounds from the slave trade. It was believed to be the first institution in the UK to implement such a "programme of restorative justice". Victorian traded Aboriginal remains for accolades Aboriginal spears to be returned to Australia University's 'bold' move to pay back slave profits The university said details on how the remains were acquired were limited, with records listing only that it was part of the collection of William MacGillivray - a natural history professor. After his death in 1852, the collection was purchased by the university. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, which includes cultural services in its remit, believes the remains were from a man killed in order to service the trade in Aboriginal body parts. It is thought unlikely that the identity of the man will ever be known beyond that of his tribal group. The return of the remains was approved by the university's governing court. Neil Curtis, head of collections at the University of Aberdeen, said: "Given the violence and racism that led to their acquisition, it would be unacceptable for these ancestral remains to be used for research, teaching or exhibitions purposes. "We are pleased that the remains of this young man can now be handed over to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for appropriate burial in his homeland." Andry Sculthorpe of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre said Aboriginal people felt an "enormous responsibility" of returning remains to their homeland. "This is a record of racist attitudes to the study of humanity, including human remains acquired by grave robbing and other immoral activity, in this case, murder," he said. "We applaud the institutions that have the courage to let go of their perceptions of intellectual supremacy, embrace their own humanity and do what is right by the people who are most impacted by the atrocities they have inflicted in the past." "This young man's murder will not be forgotten and we will bring him home to rest at last," he added. The gesture sees Aberdeen become the second Scottish university to return a Tasmanian item this week, following the return of a rare shell necklace by the University of Glasgow on Tuesday. The 19th century necklace is believed to have been made by Aboriginal women on the Bass Strait islands, located between Tasmania and mainland Australia. It features elenchus or maireener shells found off the coast of Tasmania, and comes from a tradition of Tasmanian necklace-making that has continued uninterrupted for thousands of years. It was donated to the Hunterian museum at the University of Glasgow by Mrs Margaret Miller of Launceston, during a visit to Scotland in 1877. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre first requested the item's return in 1995. Hunterian director Professor Steph Scholten said the decision to repatriate "set a new precedent".
