Germany Returns Ancestral Remains to Indigenous Australians After 144 Years

The remains of five individuals taken during the colonial era were repatriated in a ceremony marking a step towards healing and justice.

The remains, including two mummified bodies, two skulls, and a burial bundle, were returned to representatives of the Ugar Island community in the Torres Strait Islands.
The remains had been housed in Berlin's Ethnological Museum and Oldenburg's State Museum for Nature and Man since the late 19th century.
This repatriation is part of broader efforts to address colonial injustices, with Germany returning 162 sets of remains to Australia and over 1,700 globally to date.
The ceremony featured traditional funeral rites, songs, and symbolic gestures, emphasizing the significance of the remains to the cultural and spiritual identity of the Ugaram Le people.
German institutions, including the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, have committed to facilitating further repatriations as part of a reckoning with their colonial legacy.