The repatriation of a necklace and bracelet by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter in 1995 to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community from where both had been wrenched owed much to the high level of goodwill and respect shown towards each other. 

This restitution is widely considered to be a model starting point for developing an on-going relationship between two museums and their respective communities. *

Recognising the objects' rarity, the Museum initiated an investigation into the provenance and history of the necklace and braclet.  Both had been acquired by the Museum in 1905 and it was understood they'd once belonged to Truganini (c.1812 – 1876), described as ‘the last full blood Aboriginal Tasmanian’ who had witnessed the destruction of her people by European settlers. The Museum quickly learnt that both items still held a profoundly spiritual as well as a cultural significance to the Aboriginal community from where they’d been seized. 

The Museum was already considering the potential for returning them before formal negotiations were opened with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc. (TAC), a community-based organisation set up in 1973 as the appropriate body to recover Aboriginal artefacts and human remains from Australian and overseas museums. 

Because the Museum was able to identify the continuity and connections that still exist between the Aboriginal community of the 19th century and their present-day descendants, the wishes of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community played a key role throughout the negotiations.   

Truganini is still regarded a 'cultural hero' within today’s Aboriginal community.

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery provided the appropriate reassurances to the RAMM concerning the standards of conservation, security and care for display in their Cultural Centre, which set in place the foundations for a new relationship between the two museums and communities.

In 2002, The Royal College of Surgeons followed Exeter’s lead by returning a small quantity of her hair and skin to Tasmania for burial.

* Jane Legget, Restitution and Repatriation: Guidelines for good practice (Museums and Galleries Commission, 1999), Case Study 5, p. 19

Photo: Truganini, photographed in 1866 

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