Attachment A
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COMMISSION[2]
Policy for the protection and return of
significant cultural property. April 1998
1. ATSIC supports actions by governments
which acknowledge the ownership rights and obligations of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander communities, individuals and organisations,
over significant cultural property held by museums, galleries,
universities and other collecting institutions in Australia and
overseas. ATSIC supports actions by governments which uphold the
role of communities, individuals and organisations in the protection
of their cultural property. ATSIC supports empowerment of traditional
custodians of cultural property to make decisions about the protection
and return of cultural property to their custody.
2. ATSIC supports recognition that the primary
say on the protection, safekeeping and return of cultural property
in collections lies with individuals whose custodianship, ownership
rights and obligations have been affirmed by the relevant community
according to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tradition.
It is up to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
as the holders of tradition and culture to determine who holds
custodianship, cultural rights, or interests. Where there is dispute
as to who holds cultural rights over property the community concerned
has responsibility for resolving this matter.
3. Where ownership cannot be satisfactorily
determined, ATSIC holds the position that, generally, sensitive
cultural material should not be resumed from collecting institutions.
Nonetheless, ATSIC recognises, with respect to cultural property
in overseas institutions that particular circumstances may make
it preferable to return remains to Australia for temporary safekeeping
rather than leave it overseas indefinitely.
4. This policy applies to human skeletal
remains, other human tissue, burial artefacts, and significant
objects of religious and cultural property in accord with Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander tradition. The policy applies also
to historic cultural material including documentary, pictorial
and otherwise recorded resources important to the contemporary
culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
5. ATSIC supports open access by Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people to historic cultural material
which is not of a sensitive or restricted nature, and the provision
by institutions of copies of such material. ATSIC supports also
access to collections to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
to make decisions on their display, protection and return. ATSIC
believes that in the case of sensitive documentary material or
cultural property retained in institutions, traditional custodians
must be enabled to negotiate the terms of access to that material.
6. ATSIC will support the extension work
of museums and other State/Territory agencies, in relation to
the protection and preservation of significant cultural property
held in communities.
7. ATSIC asserts that post-white settlement
Aboriginal bodily remains held by collecting institutions should
be returned to the control of individuals, communities or organisations
entitled by tradition to take responsibility, and that those custodians
have the final say as to the disposal of these remains. ATSIC
supports the rights and responsibilities of custodians in relation
to remains predating European settlement held within collecting
institutions. ASTIC concedes, however, the possible scientific
interest of some remains and supports custodians entering into
negotiations with researchers where their ownership and final
control is recognised as a precondition of research.
8. ATSIC will fund research on unprovenanced
cultural material, especially skeletal remains and objects of
a religious or ceremonial nature in order to identify traditional
custodians, and for the purpose of informing Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander communities and/or custodians of its existence.
9. Ideally, material resumed from collecting
institutions shall have been provenanced to at least the regional
level, and should be accompanied by all available documentation.
Nonetheless, ATSIC recognises, with respect to remains offered
up for return from overseas institutions, that circumstances may
make it preferable to accept poorly provenanced remains rather
than split collections or leave remains in overseas institutions
indefinitely.
10. ATSIC recognises that many Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people disapprove of the storage of
repatriated objects in museums and supports a national repository
for unprovenanced cultural property. In order to facilitate provenancing
of remains ATSIC shall enter into consultations over an accessible
central record of documentation relating to repatriated material.
11. The Commonwealth Government, through
ATSIC, has a financial responsibility to assist in identification,
notification of custodians, negotiation with collecting institutions
and the return of significant cultural property currently held
overseas, and will continue its practice of funding the repatriation
of significant cultural property, including skeletal remains from
overseas collections.
12. State and Territory governments must
accept primary responsibility for the protection and return of
significant cultural material and information held in collecting
institutions within their jurisdictions. ATSIC supports the negotiation
of Intergovernmental agreements, to ensure that cultural owners
of significant cultural material who live in other states or territories
are not disadvantaged.
13. Subject to budgeting considerations,
ATSIC will fund delegations of two custodians to travel overseas
to collect cultural property and accompany it to its area of origin.
ATSIC will fund a maximum stay of five days in the country of
destination. ATSIC will meet the costs of fares, accommodation,
subsistence and reasonable expenses. In special circumstances
the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, in consultation with
the Portfolio Commissioner with responsibility for Heritage, may
authorise the funding of a delegation exceeding two persons to
travel overseas to accept custody of cultural property.
2 The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
(ATSIC) is the Australian Government department responsible for
Australian Indigenous affairs. Back
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