Aboriginal Remains Return to Tasmania After 20-year Fight

The long exile has ended for 17 Tasmanian Aboriginal people whose remains, stored for more than a century among those of hundreds of other human beings in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London, were formally returned to their people yesterday. They will be flown back to their native land this weekend.

Both the physical remains of 13 people, and the DNA samples extracted from them, were returned to Greg Brown and Caroline Spotswood, representatives of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in Hobart, by Michael Dixon, director of the museum. Remains of four other individuals were returned in April.

The museum agreed in principle to return all remains last year, after almost 20 years of requests from the Tasmanians, who believe their ancestors' spirits were being violated, and could not rest. To their fury, however, scientists insisted on carrying out tests on DNA from the remains before they were returned. In the last fortnight, talks resolved the issue, on the brink of legal action, now suspended.

The Aboriginal people themselves will decide if any scientific access is allowed to the minute samples of DNA extracted from the remains at the museum.

"This is an occasion the museum welcomes," said Oliver Stocken, chairman of trustees, adding: "We have had our moments of difficulty."

Yesterday's ceremony was courteous on both sides, but a statement from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in Hobart made clear their rage at the decades of argument, and that the fight continues.