Introduction
Although there are some earlier exceptions, the return of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural property from museums in Australia has been a point of significant debate since the 1970s. Driven by the voice of Indigenous Australians and undertaken in often tense dialogue with museum professionals, anthropologists, and archaeologists (and these groups are not necessarily all mutually exclusive), the debate has led to significant development in museum ethics, policy, and practice in Australia, a change in the way that “ownership” of such items (and thus decision making about, or influence over, them) is viewed, and has consequently resulted in the return of some types of cultural property to Indigenous groups in this country (Turnbull & Pickering 2010; Pickering 2011). The Australian history of the return of Indigenous cultural property is an informative case study, as similar changes within the same time frame occurred in other countries with indigenous...
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Fforde, C. (2014). Australia: Indigenous Cultural Property Return. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1275
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