After almost 130 years in England, an Aboriginal man has been reburied on Country

At a secret location near Berowra Creek to the north of Sydney, the birds sang as leaves rustled in the eucalypt trees, while the remains of an Aboriginal man who was removed from his grave in the late 1890s were reburied with a ceremony of clapsticks and smoke.

The man is now affectionately referred to as 'Uncle' by those who have accompanied him back to his Country, after almost 130 years stored in a British Museum.

Personal facts like his name, age, and cause of death are unknown, lost to history.

Nathan Moran, the CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, has been with Uncle since the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford handed back their collection of human remains in October 2023.

"That's the greatest feeling of all, is to know he's home.

"He hears the sounds of his mob, of his environment, and they met him, and they're still with him now. It's now good to walk away knowing he's back where he belongs."

Gomeroi elder Raymond Weatherall conducted the smoking ceremony and explained its significance.

"That fire and that smoking is a continuation from that first fire that we were gifted by our creator. Everything is a continuous circle of goodness. Our love and our lore."

Uncle's remains are now preserved in a protective box and buried in a dedicated repatriation spot where it is believed the man was originally removed from.

This resting place will be maintained by the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Lands Council and NSW National Parks and Wildlife.

Sarah Glendenning, who has worked with the National Parks and Wildlife Service for nearly four years, expressed how special the service was for her.

"It didn't sort of hit until the ceremony just how important this work is. It's been a real highlight to be a part of and support community."

Hundreds of ancestors waiting to return

The journey home started in 2017 when a collective of eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the Australian government requested the repatriation of remains.

In 2023, the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, where Uncle was kept, committed to return the remains of 11 ancestors to representatives of the respective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the Australian government.

The museum described acquiring ancestral remains as "part of the problematic history of archaeology and anthropology that caused much hurt".

Museum director Laura Van Broekhoven, at the time, thanked Indigenous people's leadership in the partnership.

"We are pleased that the ancestors are finally able to return home. We are grateful to join this Indigenous-led process that works towards healing," Professor Van Broekhoven said.

Uncle Allan Murray, the chairperson of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, was one of the delegates who travelled to England to ensure the remains would be returned home.

"There was a promise that we made over there. We said that each community [will] do its best to repatriate as much as we can because all our stolen souls are still over there," Mr Murray told the ABC.

"Australia won't be a safe place until we got those cultural returns back."

Mr Moran said that there was still more work to be done to have the estimated hundreds of repatriations in Sydney and across NSW returned, but also the thousands of First Nations remains that were still in museums overseas.

He said that the return of Uncle was a significant occasion.

"This is about undoing some of the evils of colonialism," he said.

"We want our ancestors back home, not left in some jar or on display somewhere. They deserve to be home resting on Country."

Working through mixed emotions

Amongst the trees, on the edge of Uncle's new resting place, mixed emotions were felt by those who attended.

"A word for everything up home is 'Munganga', an old people's word for everything in one. Sad, mad, glad and bad, as my great-grandmother, Ada Davis, would say, is the Blackfella feelings — an emotional cycle," Mr Moran said.

"All in one today. Glad that we've closed it. Sad about the circumstances involved, not just in the removal, illegal theft of the ancestor, but the process we had to be put through just to get him back in the soil is not OK."

Uncle Raymond Weatherall played the clapsticks and sang as Uncle was again laid to rest.

He said it was important to cleanse Uncle with the powerful qualities found in sandalwood.

"I felt I needed to go home to Gomeroi country to get a healing plant that we use in smoking," he said.

"I left fresh stuff in [the reburial site] so the oil from them would seep down into that soil with that 'Gaba Dhuwi' good spirit, that healing that comes from all of us."

As of 2024, the Australian government has facilitated the repatriation of more than 1,730 ancestors from 10 countries back to Australia.

Revive is Australia's National Cultural Policy that acknowledges the importance of respecting and promoting the rights of First Nations people to repatriate their ancestors and cultural heritage material.