For over 150 years, scientists and anthropologists took indigenous human remains out of the country to museums and university research centres. In 1948 an anthropological expedition callously removed human remains from a burial cave near the community of Gunbalanya in western Arnhem Land. A new documentary, “Etched in Bone”, follows the community of Gunbalanya as they fight to have […]

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How we can better understand the conflict between scientific and Indigenous knowledge? For more than 60 years the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC had stolen ancestral remains in its collection. It was only recently that the bones were repatriated. This story kicks off our conversation for this event, which focuses on the roles of film, […]

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     While the Aboriginal repatriation of human remains from the Smithsonian Institution should be celebrated as a great achievement, it raises questions about indigenous languages that remain unsettled.      Death does not alter our responsibility to respect each other. That is the conclusion that film-maker Martin Thomas offers when reflecting on his new […]

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