AMID a haze of cleansing eucalypt smoke, a young Aboriginal woman was returned to her country near Bendemeer yesterday, more than 50 years after her body was removed.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The woman’s remains were uncovered by a flood on a property near Bendemeer in 1964 and were taken for forensic testing then kept in a museum at Sydney University.
Aboriginal elders including Yvonne Kent and Bob Faulkner repatriated the remains to the property with a smoking ceremony and a service.
The repatriation was also made possible through co-operation between the Tamworth Aboriginal Lands Council, Steven Booby from the Office of Environment and Heritage and TAFE New England certificate II in Aboriginal sites identification students who prepared the burial site.
Mr Faulkner said the repatriation was significant as it was returning the woman to the earth with next week’s NAIDOC Week theme being Walk on Sacred Ground.
“It is important that people return to country,” he said.
“When a skeleton is found in the bush, the forensic analysis is required to happen.
“With the degradation of land, this is a regular occurrence, particularly out west, but not very often up here.
“She probably died from natural causes because the average lifespan was about 40 to 50 years old then.
“It is great these things are happening now.”
The smoking ceremony was cleansing for those in attendance and they removed their shoes, walking barefoot for the service to retain their connection to the land.
The woman was mourned through those present painting their faces and arms in white ochre.
Mrs Kent carried the woman’s remains in bark, covered in leaves, and offered up a prayer for her.
“It was fantastic to lead the ceremony,” she said.
“I’ve never experienced such a spiritual awakening as I did during the service.”
“In the 1700s and 1800s my people came through here and probably teamed up with Bob and Don Fermer’s (a Bendemeer elder) mob.
“We don’t know where they had corroborees and meeting places, but this is a way of bringing that back.
“It’s a way that the non-Indigenous and our mob can learn together.”
This is the second repatriation of remains in the Tamworth area in recent years, with the last being a man’s remains at the Tamworth Regional Botanic Gardens.
Mr Faulkner and Mrs Kent said there were still many remains and tribal artefacts that needed to be returned to country, which they were lobbying for.
“There are a lot of our people still in museums around the world,” Mr Faulkner said.
“The people belong here and need to come back to their country.”
