The remains of an indigenous Australian is transferred to his descendants of the community of the Gimuy Walubara Yidindji. “It is a moment of sadness but also a happiness,” said chief Gudju Gudju Fourmile today, with the transfer in the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich, where the mummified body since 1889 was saved.
Expedition had the corpse of chieftain Yidinji Ancestral King, according to the ministry of Art and Culture in 1876, during a funeral rite in the region of the current Queensland stolen. Possible they wanted with the sale of the body of their expedition fund. Also, the corpse of his wife was stolen, but her body is still not recovered.
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Fourmile made use of the transfer to a political statement. The colonial perception of the native inhabitants of the fifth continent is still current. The Aborigines want, however, a sovereign community within the Commonwealth. That vision was substantiated by the coffin with the mortal remains of the flag of the Aboriginal people to drape, black and red with a yellow circle.
Munich is just the first stop of the group of Aboriginal people. The group, which also includes representatives from the Yawuru people of the west of Australia, are, like the remains of 52 other ancestors. That are in the hands of the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, in the art collections of the government in Dresden and in the files of the universities of Freiburg and Halle.
The next few days are, therefore, two other overdrachtsplechtigheden in Stuttgart and Berlin are planned. After their return to Australia will be the remains with traditional rites to be buried.