Welcome to the website of our project: Return Reconcile Renew. We have developed it in response to our communities’ wishes to find and return the remains of our Old People who were taken to museums all over the world and who need to be brought back to country. The title, Return Reconcile Renew, reflects how people have talked about the importance of repatriation.

We share our experiences with you to raise awareness of the importance of repatriation and its role in healing, wellbeing and reconciliation. The website has been developed by our three community organisations and we acknowledge that many other views and approaches might be taken by other organisations. We do not speak for other communities.

The website will provide you with stories where people from our communities share their experiences with repatriation, the complexities they have faced and the relationships they have built.

The website provides you with information about repatriation and reburial. It contains community voices from Ngarrindjeri, the Torres Strait and the Kimberley about their experiences, concerns, hopes and aspirations to bring our Old People home and the role that this plays in healing and cultural renewal for us and our future generations. It tells the story about why repatriation is so important to our communities.

You can find out about the removal of our Old People and how Indigenous peoples are working to bring them back to country. We know many people have done this before us and many will do so in the future. We honour and acknowledge all those who have played a part.

We want to help others on this journey, so you can use this site to find information about how remains were taken, where they were sent to, what happened to them, and if they have been returned to country. We hope this will help those who are looking for their ancestors and also inform others about why this is so important.

The information provided here has been approved by community elders. We have discussed the cultural sensitivities that are often faced in repatriation and the information that surrounds it. We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the information available to the public is appropriate. But remember that this is a painful history and must be viewed with caution. It is also a history of how much we have achieved in correcting past wrongs. Repatriation brings up mixed emotions. Further on you will find how we have developed protocols for the protection and management of culturally sensitive information and how it can be accessed to help communities undertake their own searches.