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Returning our Ancestors

May 14, 2020 @ 5:15 pm - 7:00 pm

Free

Bookings for this event have been cancelled at the current time due to the ongoing restrictions of COVID-19. We may be rescheduling later in the year. We will keep our members informed as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds.

Repatriation of Aboriginal Ancestral Remains is guided by a commitment to return the Ancestors to rest on Country by all involved.

In this partnership event between the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council we will be screening the documentary, Returning Our Ancestors, which will be followed by a discussion with Bonnie Chew, Councillor of the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council and our President, Richard Broome.

“As part of the process of colonisation, Aboriginal peoples’ burial places were desecrated in the name of curiosity, science and research. Aboriginal Ancestors were stolen from their land where they had been placed with care and ceremony, to be housed in metal boxes as specimens or ornaments of curiosity by individuals, families and institutions.

The 1980’s saw Aboriginal Ancestors start to return to rest on Country. But the journey is by no means complete and there are many more of our Ancestors still to come home. We can all walk together and help in this essential work.”

Returning our Ancestors is a documentary, four years in the making, which shares some of this difficult but healing journey. Produced by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council, with the contribution of stories from Victorian Traditional Owners and others. Returning our Ancestors is unlike any film on this topic: current, relevant, intimate, emotional and extraordinary. It is a call to action, to help Traditional Owners return their Ancestors to Country. The project raises awareness of the sensitivities around connection to Country, the importance of reporting and returning Ancestors and the reasons Ancestors are not in the custodianship of their Traditional Owners.

Returning our Ancestors shows us what we can do as a Victorian community to work together for the rightful and respectful return and protection of Aboriginal Ancestors, now and into the future.

As with all RHSV events, we provide refreshments from 5:15pm till just before 6pm when we move upstairs for the screening and conversation. 

Bonnie Chew is a proud Wadawurrung (Wathaurung) woman with many years’ experience in Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and Education.

Bonnie regularly gives lectures promoting cultural heritage management and has sound knowledge of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. In April 2012, she had the opportunity to be a representative for Ballarat at the World Historical Cities Conference in Vietnam, where she was able to share her knowledge and network with people of many other nations on a range of heritage issues.

Recently, Bonnie held the role of Cultural Heritage Coordinator for a Registered Aboriginal Party (Wathaurung Aboriginal Corporation). In that role, Bonnie worked closely with the community, archaeologists, developers, anthropologists, ecologists and government authorities, on approximately 126 projects to achieve the best outcomes regarding the preservation of cultural heritage on her traditional Country.

Richard Broome is one of Australia’s leading historians. While he has written on a wide range of subjects, ‘it is his work on Indigenous history with its emphasis on Aboriginal agency and capacity for negotiation and self-empowerment that has been most influential. His book Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788, first published in 1982, is now in its 5th fully revised edition and has sold over 60,000 copies in that time. It is the most widely read work in this field. He has also written Aboriginal Victorians: A History since 1800, published in 2005 and the most comprehensive account available of Aboriginal history since white settlement in this state.

His history of the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League, Fighting Hard, was published in 2015 to document the fight against policies of assimilation and the struggle for civil rights. In the clarity and accessibility of his writing, his great capacity for story-telling and his meticulous research, Richard has opened up the history of Aboriginal Australians to a much wider public readership than academic historians.’

Our affiliated historical societies are encouraged to host their own screenings of this important documentary, Returning our Ancestors, for their members and friends. It is, no doubt, very pertinent to some historical societies which hold Ancestral Remains in their collections. 

The Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council wants as many Victorians to see the documentary as possible so they can be aware of the issues and challenges the documentary raises. The film is relevant to your communities, to people in your area, to the Traditional Owners of Country in your region and should be seen, discussed and shared as widely as possible so action can be taken. The invitation is for you to run an event, and for Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council to support it, but also to keep the call to action ‘alive’ through other events and communications you undertake during 2020 and beyond. The call to action and communication about the message should exist and grow beyond one event or one screening of the documentary.

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Details

Date:
May 14, 2020
Time:
5:15 pm - 7:00 pm
Cost:
Free
Website:
www.historyvictoria.org.au

Organiser

Royal Historical Society of Victoria
Phone:
03 9326 9288
Email:
office@historyvictoria.org.au
Website:
http://historyvictoria.org.au