from The Argus
A museum relic which sparked an international row between Brighton and Hove and an Aborigine community will be handed back so it can be ceremonially buried.
Brighton and Hove's museum service is preparing to give back an Aborigine skull which it has held at the Booth Museum in Dyke Road, Brighton, since 1925.
It has refused for years to hand over the item because of its rarity.
The new decision follows fruitful talks between Brighton and Hove City Council and a delegation from the Ngarrindjeri community from southern Australia, who visited the city last week with Australian Government officials.
The council said it would be returning the item along with four other Aboriginal bones kept at the museum so they could be buried in accordance with their spiritual beliefs.
Council leader Mary Mears said: “It’s about respecting the Ngarrindjeri people’s values and wanting to do the right thing by them."
The Australian Government has been lobbying to reclaim dozens of relics brought by collectors to Europe. It secured an agreement with the British Government that items should be returned and sent investigators to scour the country's museums.
Brighton and Hove had been reluctant to return the skull because it has been hollowed out to make a water carrier.
The work meant it was categorised as an artefact rather than a bone and had a different status.
The museum service was reluctant to hand back an artefact because it may have set a precedent which could result in other items being reclaimed by their native countries.
Those concerns appear to have been addressed.
Councillor Mears said: "The remain is very significant to the Ngarrindjeri Nation. So we felt on balance that returning the carrier is the proper and humane thing to do."
The relic had been donated to the city by F W Lucas, a local collector who brought back objects from across the world.
There is only one other water-carrying skull in Australia. A handful of others are in European collections.
Major Sumner and George Trevorrow, the Ngarrindjeri delegation, were on their way back to Australia yesterday.
Mr Trevorrow said it had been important for the remains to be returned because in Aboriginal spirituality a soul is in torment unless its body rests in its native land.
He said: "This helps us feel more human. Remember for a long, long time we were not classified as human."
The council has entered talks with the Ngarrindjeri Nation over a new cultural exchange which will mean items will be loaned for displays at the city's museums.
The decision to return the items will be finalised at a meeting of the council's cabinet today.
Councillor Melanie Davis, the Labour opposition spokeswoman for culture, had lobbied for the skull to be returned.
She said: "This is a terrific outcome. It is absolutely right that both the bones and skull return to the indigenous people to be buried by the Ngarrindjeri as they should have been all those years ago."
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