Why did Trinity College repatriate Aboriginal spears to Australia?

“These spears were taken away during the first contact between Europeans and the first nations people of Australia,” said Noeleen Timbery, from the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council.

“That contact’s always had a narrative as a one-sided story, so having tangible objects that have survived from that time can tell us a lot about the people who made them, it brings a different narrative and story to the beginning of the shared history of Australia.”

Ms Timbery was among Aboriginal representatives who attended the repatriation ceremony held in Trinity College’s Wren Library on Tuesday, but has also visited the archives of UK museums, where similar items are stored.

“They were made for a purpose and that’s forgotten when they are seen as artefacts,” she said.

It made Ms Timbery wonder “what else is in the back areas of UK museums that we don’t know about and how can we connect to them”.

For her, “it’s important to do that on Country” – the term often used by Aboriginal peoples, external to describe the lands, waterways and seas to which they are connected.

“So, when we talk about bringing them back to Country, it’s almost like reconnecting them with land, with spirit, with a time gone by,” she said.

“It absolutely feels like a homecoming.”