Format: Panel discussion
Convenors:
Gary Pappin, Mutti Mutti, gary@pappin.com.au
Doug Williams, Access Archaeology, dwilliams@accessarchaeology.com
Michael C Westaway, Archaeology, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, m.westaway@uq.edu.au
In 1981 the Willandra Lakes was inscribed as one of Australia’s two first World Heritage Areas. Central to its inscription were the ancient remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man. Since then, fossil human remains from over 100 ancestral people dating to the Ice Age have been rescued from erosion, entrenching the Willandra as a centre of one of the world’s great stories of humanity. In 2003 a delegation of Willandra Elders attended the 3rd WAC and discussed the then recent discovery of additional ancestral remains and emphasised the need for a keeping place. In 2017, with great ceremony, the ancestral remains were repatriated to the Willandra Lakes. Debate over the fate of the ancestral remains has created division, with some Traditional Owners arguing for long term retention in a keeping place while others have argued for reburial. In 2022 then Environment Minister Susan Ley approved reburial of the Willandra remains, while shortly after incoming Minister for the Environment, Tanya Plibersek, revoked this permission, awaiting further consideration. Nonetheless a delegation of Aboriginal people obtained access to the ancestral remains and Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were secretly reburied. The fate of the remaining ancestral remains is uncertain.
In this session we shall explore the issues around the first reburial of ancestral remains recognised as part of the heritage of multiple parties, primarily Willandra’s Three Traditional Tribal Groups, but also of that Australia and the world. We propose to explore the future of the past from multiple perspectives.