Aboriginal remains to be returned

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The remains of three Aborigines are to be returned to Australia from a Tyneside museum.

It follows a request for repatriation by the Australian government.

The remains are part of a collection belonging to the Natural History Society of Northumbria, based at the Hancock Museum, in Newcastle.

Chair of the Indigenous Repatriation Reference Committee, Rodney Dillon, will be in Newcastle on Thursday to collect the remains.

Museum records show a female skull of Western Australian origin was acquired by the Society in 1804, but the source is not known.

Trace ancestry

Two skulls said to come from Adelaide were given to the Society by Anthony Forster in 1845.

The Monkwearmouth-born politician, financier and newspaperman arrived in South Australia in 1841 where he was employed as an agent and attorney. He resigned in 1844, returned to England for a time and returned to Australia in 1846.

The exact origin of the remains are not known and so they will be sent first to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra to see if it is possible to trace their ancestry.

If experts can establish the origin of the remains, they will be returned to their specific community or place for reburial. Otherwise further discussions will take place on a final resting place.

Tyne and Wear Museums director Alec Coles said: "After careful consideration we felt that it was entirely appropriate that these remains should be returned to their country of origin and hopefully, eventually to their communities."