Australia and Germany are close to finalizing a landmark agreement to return hundreds of Indigenous Australian artefacts held in German museums, according to officials from both countries. The deal would see the artefacts repatriated over the next several years, marking a significant step towards reconciliation and acknowledging the painful history of colonization.
Negotiations have been ongoing for over a decade, but recent meetings between representatives from the Australian government and several German museums have signaled a breakthrough is imminent. “If this request is successful it will be the first return of cultural material under the Return of Cultural Heritage program from continental Europe,” a spokeswoman for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) said.
The artefacts in question include tools, weapons, sacred objects, and human remains that were taken from Indigenous communities, often without consent, in the 18th and 19th centuries. They ended up in museums and private collections across Germany, where many remain today. Repatriating these items is a top priority for the Australian government and Indigenous groups, who view them as an integral part of their cultural heritage.
While the agreement with Germany is a promising step, Australia still faces an uphill battle to reclaim the estimated 1.6 million Indigenous artefacts held in institutions outside the country. Negotiations with the British Museum and other major collectors have stalled, highlighting the long road ahead to reconciliation and restorative justice for past wrongs. But with the German deal in sight, Australia has renewed hope that more artefacts will find their way home.
On Friday, June 16, Germany returned to Colombia two masks created by the Indigenous Kogi people that had been in the collection of a Berlin museum for more than a century, marking another step in the country's restitution of cultural items as European nations reconsider their colonial-era past.
According to Australia's High Commissioner in London, the two countries are negotiating the return of culturally sensitive Aboriginal artifacts from British museums. A number of museums in the United Kingdom exhibit indigenous Australian objects such as paintings, spears, ceremonial items, and sculptures that are culturally and historically significant to some of the more than 250 existing Aboriginal communities.
