Fowler Museum at UCLA permanently returns cultural objects to Australia’s Warumungu community

At a repatriation event held today at the Fowler Museum at UCLA,museum representatives returned 20 objects of significant cultural importance to members of the Warumungu community of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, Australia, where the items originated.

The permanent, voluntary and ethical return of the items by the Fowler - a museum dedicated to global arts and cultures, with an emphasis on Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Indigenous Americas - was initiated by theAustralian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies,or AIATSIS.

"It's very important that a lot of these artifacts are coming back for Warumungu people," said Warumungu senior man Michael Jones Jampijinpa, who was involved with the repatriation efforts. "A lot of those artifacts that museums have went before us, and we didn't even see them."

AIATSIS is the only Australian cultural institution solely dedicated to the diverse history, cultures and heritage of Australia's Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. The AIATSIS Return of Cultural Heritage programteam worked closely with Warumungu elders and the Fowler's collections team since March 2021 to identify the 20 objects of cultural importance to the Warumungu community.

"By returning cultural heritage material to their rightful owners, we ensure that those items are cared for and respected within their original cultural contexts," said Leonard Hill, interim CEO of AIATSIS. "The return of cultural heritage material promotes an equitable and inclusive approach to heritage preservation that centers the voices of First Nations peoples. In embracing the repatriation of cultural heritage material, we affirm our commitment to the shared heritage of humanity."

Ten of the returned Warumungu objects in the Fowler's collection were gifts from private collectors while the other 10 arrived via the Wellcome Trust. After Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and artifact collector, died in 1936, the trust dispersed his collection, with the Fowler receiving nearly 30,000 items from around the globe in 1965.

The repatriated objects include clubs, wirli or ngurrulumuru (fighting picks), marttan (knives), murkutu (sheaths), kupija (adzes) and a wartilykirri (a hooked boomerang), all of which are being unconditionally returned to Warumungu's Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in Tennant Creek and will be cared for in accordance with the traditions and customs of the Warumungu community.

In addition to Hill of AIATSIS, key attendees at the repatriation event included Warumungu elders Cliff Plummer Jabarula and William (Bill) Ah Kit Jakamarra; California state Sen. Ben Allen; California Tribal Affairs Secretary Christina Snider-Ashtari; Silvia Forni, the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum; Lionel Popkin, interim dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture; Cindy Fan, UCLA's vice provost for international studies and global engagement; Carole Goldberg, distinguished research professor at UCLA School of Law; and Tanya Bennett, Australia's consul general in Los Angeles.

In February 2024, the Fowler returned objectsin its collection to the Asante kingdom in Ghana. These ethical returns, alongside the museums exhibitions and programming, demonstrate the Fowler's commitment to responsible stewardship and the preservation and exploration of global arts and cultures, Forni said.

"By returning these items to their communities of origin, we honor their cultural significance and foster mutual respect," she said. "This approach to cultural stewardship ensures the Fowler Museum remains a space for learning and collaboration."

The Fowler's approach to exhibitions and programming increasingly relies on co-creation with curators and artists from the communities where historical works and ojects in the museum's collections originated. The foregrounding of Indigenous perspectives is a methodology that shapes many of the Fowler's current exhibitions - including "Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Tanya Aguiñiga & Porfirio Gutiérrez en Conversación/in Conversation"- as well as upcoming projects like "Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art."Both exhibitions are part of the Getty's PST ART: Art & Science Collide.

"Museums have the responsibility to facilitate connections and cultural exchange," Forni said. "This involves not only showcasing the rich diversity of human cultures but also acknowledging historical injustices. The repatriation of ancestral objects is a crucial aspect of this process."

Read the full press release on the Fowler Museum wesite (PDF).

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