Statement on repatriation of the Gweagal Shield & Spears - Murrum of the Gweagal (Rodney Kelly)

Statement on repatriation of the Gweagal Shield & Spears - Murrum of the Gweagal (Rodney Kelly) Cambridge Oct 20 2016

My people are the original inhabitants of the Botany Bay region where Captain Cook first landed we lived there for thousands of years in harmony with the land. At the time that Captain James Cook as sailing up the east coast of Australia my people were doing what they'd done for thousands of years. The Gweagal people were full of ancient culture and knowledge and law, in tune with the animals, in tune with the land and that day in 1770 when the British invaded it disrupted all of that. We lost so much that day. Culture, language families, land & knowledge.

There are many many aboriginal people trying to find who they are where they come from trying to connect with their history.

It's a very powerful thing culture. If you have it you know about yourself and about your family but if you don't have it it's very hard.

I hope that one day the rich history, the rich culture of Botany Bay can be revived again, taught to our kids, to our family member. I hope to bring my Gweagal culture alive one day and I hope to see these artefacts (The Gweagal Shield & Spears) returned and be part of us again, because my people never forgot over 246 years they still talk today the elders.

My only hope is that maybe one day my family my tribe could speak our tongue speak our language and practice our culture again. I hope we can one day go out and make spears and take the young kids out and show them how it was done before white men came to our shores. All our stories passed down generation to generation, they tell us who we are, tell me who I am.

Why these artefacts are so important to the Gweagal people of Botany Bay is that we were the first Original Australian people to have contact with the British and we were the first to lose our culture and language. We haven't practiced our culture for many years. It's slowly returning to us word by word, artefact by artefact.

For the people of the Botany Bay region those spears represent who we and are where we come from. They are symbolic of our tribe trying to piece our stolen culture back together.

The land provided for us, and in turn we looked after the land. Our toolmaking, Spear & Boomerang making is still alive today. We are slowly regaining our culture, our language.

The Sacred objects and artefacts held in British collections would bring pride and culture into the people of Botany Bay who have lost so much since the British invaded our land in 1770.

To us, our artefacts are not just a tool. They are who we are. They are a part of us. They represent a lost culture. They represent my family.

My family were the first to be in contact and when you come to my tribe you really see what has happened and what has been lost since the British invasion of 1770.

All of the artefacts stolen from Botany Bay in 1770 by Cook and the crew of the Endeavour must be returned to the Gweagal people from whom they were stolen who are the rightful owners.

Our wish as the Gweagal people is to have all stolen artefacts including the Gweagal Shield & Spears repatriated into a new living cultural heritage museum at Kamay (Botany Bay) before April 28 2020, the 250th anniversary of Cook's invasion.

This living cultural heritage museum will form the centerpiece in the revival of the Gweagal culture & customs and educate Original and non Original Australian's about the ancient cultures of Australia and the true nature of the British invasion of Australia.

(transcribed from lecture at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, UK)

Murrum of the Gweagal

RODNEY KELLY

Cambridge UK

October 20 2016