Australian aboriginals outraged over handling of ancestral remains, demand probe

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - The Tasmania Aboriginal Centre (TAC), a human rights and cultural organization, has demanded an inquiry into the handling of ancestral remains of First Nations peoples, saying it is "horrified" after the police coroner's office dropped off human remains without warning to its receptionist, local media reported.

The remains, some of them dating back to as early as 772 AD, were returned to the center in brown paper bags on Friday without any prior communication, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported, citing the center.

The bones were found by locals in two separate incidents that were since investigated by the coroner.

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

In one bag was a bone identified through testing to be Aboriginal, which was found by a local in a rock pool at Carlton Beach, southeast 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.

The TAC’s campaign manager, Nala Mansell, said the state's handling of the remains demonstrates a "complete disrespect and disregard" for First Nations people.

“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," she was quoted as saying.

An initial examination concluded that the bones were 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.

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 Aboriginal community are shut out and we are at the whim of white authorities,” she added.