WHEN the 42,000 year-old bones of Mungo Man were returned to country from Canberra in November, 2017, many Aboriginal people believed he would immediately be reburied on the land he called home.
However, almost five years on, the oldest remains found in Australia, along with those of 104 others, are still under lock and key inside the Mungo Visitor Centre.
But could all that be about to change?
Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley this week visited Lake Mungo to speak to members of the Aboriginal Advisory Group, and hear their impassioned pleas for why their ancestors should be reburied and at peace again.
The decision on what happens with the remains, which are of enormous historical and scientific significance, will ultimately fall to Ms Ley in her portfolio as Environment Minister.
And it is one she admits carries great responsibility.
“I have set myself a date that a decision needs to be made by the middle of April,” Ms Ley told Sunraysia Daily on her return to Mildura from Mungo this week.
After receiving a proposal for the reburial last year, Ms Ley, who is also the Member for Farrer, has been on a mission to listen to both sides of a debate that is as complex as it as simple.
“Broadly speaking, the two different points of view are whether the remains should be reburied and then left, or the alternative view is whether they should be in a keeping place for people to visit and for scientists to be able to continue to study. Neither is my view at this point in time,” she explained.
“Scientists’ views are that reburial removes the opportunity for further techniques of scientific study that we may not be aware of and that that is an opportunity lost to science, both western science and indeed Traditional Owner knowledge.
“The impassioned appeals from the scientists have been about access of the remains for science in the future and I understand that, but the emotion from the Traditional Owners is that these are our ancestors and we would just like them to be reburied and left alone.”
During her visit to Mungo this week, Ms Ley was taken to the broad landscape where Mungo Man and Mungo Lady were discovered. She also stayed the night, speaking into the evening with Aboriginal people to gauge a better understanding of their views on what is a deeply personal issue.
“It was important for me to do that in my consideration,” she said.
“To know that their ancestors are effectively in the store room at the Mungo Visitor Centre is upsetting.”
The discovery of Mungo Man, who was uncovered by geologist Jim Bowler in 1974, revealed Aboriginal people had settled inland Australia, with a sophisticated culture, more than 40,000 years ago. But permission was never sought to remove the remains from where they rested.
It came after Dr Bowler had found the burnt remains of the woman now known as Mungo Lady in 1969 — evidence of the world’s oldest known human cremation.
While Mungo Lady was repatriated in 1992, the remains of Mungo Man, who was believed to be aged about 50 when he died and an elder in his community, remained in Canberra.
Efforts to restore the remains to Mungo through negotiations with the Paakantyi, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngiyampaa peoples were met with frustrating bureaucratic delays until the impasse was resolved early in 2017. And yet he and the other 104 people still remain out of the ground.
“A remark was made to me that it seemed very easy for scientists to remove the remains, but it seems awfully hard to put them back,” Ms Ley said this week.
“The frustration of the traditional owners is both clear and understandable. There is great frustration, great sadness, some anger and annoyance.
“People have built their careers and academic credentials on Mungo Man and Mungo Lady and the other remains here, and that has been fine for 40 years, but really, has that been long enough?”
It’s a historic decision to make. Over to you, Minister.
