Bristol City Council<\/a> and Australian Government representatives.<\/p>\nThe event was attended by community leaders and international guests. Among them were Larrakia representatives – Nigel Browne and Mikayla Lee, Australia\u2019s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom – The Hon Stephen Smith, The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Bristol – Councillor Henry Michallat, and Leader of the Bristol City Council – Councillor Tony Dyer.<\/p>\n
The objects will be temporarily housed at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory until the opening of the Larrakia Cultural Centre in 2026, a landmark cultural facility which is currently being built adjacent to the sacred site of Stokes Hill, Darwin Harbour. This is a project of the Larrakia Development Corporation.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_ABR_BRISTOL_020925_museum_01.jpg\")
The objects \u2013 spears, spear throwers and a club \u2013 were collected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and have been held in the museum\u2019s collection for decades<\/p>\n
Mark Motlop, Chairperson of the Larrakia Development Corporation and Larrakia man, said: \u201cToday is an extremely important milestone for the revitalisation and maintenance of Larrakia culture, now and for future generations, as we accept these culturally significant artefacts from the Bristol Museum back to the rightful custodianship of Larrakia people.<\/p>\n
“It has been a long and emotional journey for Larrakia people in the repatriation of these items to Larrakia Country – one that will facilitate healing and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. Once returned to their rightful place on Larrakia Country, in Darwin, Australia, these items will be displayed at the Larrakia Cultural Centre, opening in 2026 ensuring their stories are honoured and shared with the world for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the ceremony, Councillor Tony Dyer, Leader of Bristol City Council, recognised the importance of this return for the city of Bristol and for Bristol Museums. Councillor Tony Dyer, said: \u201cWe are proud to support the respectful return of these items of cultural heritage to the Larrakia People. We are grateful to have been able to work closely with everyone involved in this formal repatriation, this international collaboration has allowed us to take a powerful and significant step forward towards shared understanding and partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard Hill, CEO of AIATSIS, described the return as a powerful example of how collaboration between communities and institutions can restore cultural authority and support intergenerational knowledge. He said: \u201cThese items belong with their people, on their Country, where they can once again contribute to cultural life and intergenerational knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
This event follows on from the recent return of cultural objects to Larrakia from the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, USA on May 20. The move is said to further enrich the experience of the Larrakia Cultural Centre, which will serve as a hub for cultural tourism, language revitalisation and education, offering people a chance to engage with Larrakia knowledge and traditions through the lens of its Traditional Owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ‘treasures’, including spears and spear throwers, have been in the museum\u2019s collection for decades Annette Belcher Digital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,393,4884,4729,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-393463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-museums","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115138069334020689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_ABR_BRISTOL_020925_museum_02.jpg\")
A long-standing Bristol Museum collection has been returned <\/p>\n