Tasmanian Aboriginal community outraged as remains of ancestors returned without warning in brown paper bags

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre campaign manager Nala Mansell with one of the bags of remains. (ABC News: Owain Stia-James)

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre says it is “horrified” after the coroner’s office dropped off human remains in brown paper bags without warning to its reception on Friday.

The four evidence bags contained ancestral remains from two separate coronial investigations.

In one bag was a bone identified through testing to be Aboriginal that was found by a member of the public in a rock pool at Carlton Beach, south-east of Hobart, in 2022.

The other three bags held bones found in 2016 at a remote location near Low Rocky Point on the state’s west coast.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) campaign manager Nala Mansell says the state’s handling of the remains demonstrates a “complete disrespect and disregard” for First Nations people.

“A police officer has rocked up unannounced to the Tasmanian centre with paper bags informing us that: ‘Here’s the bones of your ancestors. I’ve been asked to drop them off to you,'” Ms Mansell said.

“We’re at a loss as to how, after 220 years, the remains of Aboriginal people in this state continue to be treated with the utmost disrespect in a manner that we understand would not be OK if it was a non-Aboriginal person.”

Ms Mansell said it was not the first time that ancestral remains had been returned unceremoniously.

“We recently received remains that were part of the Crowther collection in a chocolate box and a cigar box,” she said.

“It’s just horrific for all involved. It’s horrific for the Aboriginal community who have for hundreds of years had to deal with the remains of Aboriginal people being sent over to international museums.”

Bones more than 1,000 years old

The Carlton Beach bone was found in a weathered state from exposure to the environment and was initially thought to be from a person who died at least 10 years ago, but was later confirmed through radiocarbon testing to date from between 772 and 991AD.

In a recently released coroner’s report, forensic anthropologist Dr Anne-Marie Williams said the bone’s poor condition made it difficult to identify, but was likely to be a left femur.

It is the second coronial report on uncovered Tasmanian Aboriginal remains in recent weeks, with an investigation into human bones found at the Shank on the state’s west coast released a fortnight ago.

A left and right femur, along with a right radius bone was found by a fisherman north of Low Rocky Point in 2016.

The report said that the fisherman noticed the bones protruding from the sandbank about 10 metres from the water. He removed them, and took them to Kettering in Hobart’s south, where he handed them to police.

An initial examination concluded the bones to be from at least 20 years ago and possibly up to 100 years ago. But in 2022, the remains were sent to the national laboratory for further DNA testing where radiocarbon dating indicated that the bones were pre-European, and dated from between 772 and 890 AD.

The bones contained a type of DNA known as S haplogroup, which is found only in Indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal community ‘shut out’ from inquiry

Ms Mansell said the coroner’s handling of the discoveries and the prolonged time to inform the Aboriginal community was “racial discrimination” and “a complete breach of the law”.

She said the coroner had no jurisdiction to test the remains.

“The Coroner’s Act of 1995 is a law that says if the coroner suspects remain human remains may be Aboriginal, they need to contact the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre so that the Aboriginal community can have some involvement in the process … and ensure that the human remains are dealt with in a respectful manner,” she said.

“Unfortunately, in this instance, we’ve found out over the weekend through social media posts that some human remains were uncovered in the Carlton Bluff area. No notification was made on behalf of the coroner’s office whatsoever with us.

“The Aboriginal community are shut out and we are at the whim of white authorities.

“We are demanding that the attorney-general steps up and has a full inquiry into the process of the coroner dealing with Aboriginal remains.”

Government ‘deeply disappointed’ with ‘insensitive treatment’ of remains 

In a statement, a spokesperson said the government was “deeply disappointed to hear the reports of insensitive treatment of Aboriginal remains”.

“We are committing to address the process for the treatment of Aboriginal remains in our Aboriginal Engagement Guidelines.”

The spokesperson said the attorney-general was seeking advice from the Department of Justice over “the appropriateness of the existing provisions of the Coroners Act”.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said the treatment of the remains was as “outrage” and showed the “ongoing racism and colonisation that occurs in Tasmania”.

She said “sincere engagement” was needed by the coroner’s office and the state government to address the issue.

The Aboriginal community intends to hold private ceremonies for the remains of their ancestors.

The coroner’s office declined to comment.

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