Fowler Museum returns artifacts to Australia's Warumungu community

Dr. Michael Drake, President | Official website

By West LA Times

Jul 24, 2024

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.

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

“It’s very important that a lot of these artifacts are coming back for Warumungu people,” said Warumungu senior man Michael Jones Jampijinpa. “A lot of those artifacts that museums have went before us, and we didn’t even see them.”

AIATSIS is dedicated to preserving the diverse history, cultures, and heritage of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. Since March 2021, AIATSIS has worked closely with Warumungu elders and the Fowler’s collections team to identify 20 objects significant 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 returned objects were gifts from private collectors while another ten arrived via the Wellcome Trust. After Sir Henry Wellcome died in 1936, his collection was dispersed with nearly 30,000 items sent to various institutions including Fowler in 1965.

The repatriated objects include clubs, wirli or ngurrulumuru (fighting picks), marttan (knives), murkutu (sheaths), kupija (adzes), and a wartilykirri (a hooked boomerang). These will be unconditionally returned to Warumungu’s Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in Tennant Creek.

Key attendees at the event included Leonard Hill; Warumungu elders Cliff Plummer Jabarula and William Ah Kit Jakamarra; California state Sen. Ben Allen; California Tribal Affairs Secretary Christina Snider-Ashtari; Silvia Forni, Director of Fowler Museum; Lionel Popkin, interim dean of UCLA School of Arts and Architecture; Cindy Fan, UCLA vice provost for international studies; Carole Goldberg from UCLA School of Law; Tanya Bennett from Australia’s consulate in Los Angeles.

In February 2024, Fowler returned objects from its collection to Ghana's Asante kingdom. These returns demonstrate Fowler’s commitment to responsible stewardship as stated by Silvia Forni: “By returning these items to their communities of origin we honor their cultural significance.”

Fowler increasingly collaborates with curators from originating communities for exhibitions like "Sangre de Nopal/Blood of Nopal" and "Fire Kinship." These projects are part of Getty's PST ART initiative.

“Museums have a responsibility to facilitate connections,” Forni said. “This involves showcasing human cultures’ diversity while acknowledging historical injustices.”