Long journey to bring home remains of Menang Noongar ancestors nears end

More than a century after the remains of six Menang Noongar ancestors were torn from their homeland for show in a German museum, Mt Barker woman Megan Krakouer wants them returned to their original resting place in Albany. Ms Krakouer joined a group of elders from across the nation late last year for a 13,000km pilgrimage to Germany to bring home the remains of 42 Aboriginal ancestors sold to a museum in Leipzig. Ms Krakouer, alongside elder Stuart Hansen, was tasked with representing the people of Wagyl Kaip — a region spanning 52,200sqkm across Menang, Goreng and Ganeang country from Boyup Brook to Hopetoun. Six of the 42 ancestors were West Australians, disinterred from burial grounds at King George Sound. Standing outside the brick walls of the museum in Leipzig, the group was engulfed in smoke from the leaves of their homeland as their ancestors were returned to their care. “I have never felt more shattered,” Ms Krakouer said. “It had taken 139 years to in part repair a little of the hideous indignities committed to my ancestors, as if they had been zoological exhibitions. “I don’t treat animals — any creature of the earth — as human beings treated other human beings more than a century ago. “I feel that we did our ancestors proud. “The ancestral remains, through no fault of their own, were taken outside of their homelands, outside of their traditional country and now they are returned to Noongar country, so it was a very, very powerful experience. “Coming back from Germany with our ancestral remains was ... a signifier of our Aboriginal people and the struggles that we have gone through. “You know that you are representing your community, you are representing the struggles that our people have fought. “It is a signifier of the oppressions, the hurt, trauma, grief and the loss that we have endured due to colonisation. “Bringing our people home to where they rightfully belong was incredibly powerful. “But there are others that need to be returned home.” The remains of the six Menang Noongar ancestors arrived in Australia in December and are being held in Perth until an appropriate place for their reburial can be decided. Ms Krakouer said the process had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they should be returned to Menang country. Ms Krakouer said she would be advocating for her ancestors to be returned to their original burial grounds near King George Sound, from where they were disinterred in 1880. “My ancestors should rest eternal where their loved ones had laid them to rest,” she said. “The Waygl Kaip working party with the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, in collaboration with the people of the community, will determine the next steps.” Ms Krakouer said the final step of returning her ancestors to the earth would involve the entire community. “It’s a celebration but at the same time it’s a sense of mourning for our people both black, white and brown,” she said. “This is a proud moment for the whole town of Albany, for the whole South West to know that the ancestral remains of our people have come back home.”