Manchester Museum returns 174 artefacts to Indigenous Australians

The future of museums is in repatriating culturally significant artefacts.

Last week (Tuesday 5 September), Manchester Museum celebrated the return of 174 culturally significant artefacts to the Aboriginal Anindilyakwa community of Australia’s Northern Territory.

As part of what is being considered a landmark repatriation project, representatives from the Anindilyakwa community travelled the 14,300 kilometres from Groote Eylandt to Manchester for the formal ceremony.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina