GWEAGAL BROTHER SHIELD FOUND IN BERLIN!
Less than 24 hours after landing in Berlin we visited the Ethnological Museum and discovered by accident that the brother of the Gweagal Shield is resting there… Our appointment was to catalogue the Aboriginal artefacts and Sacred objects held in the Berlin museum. Our important side mission to repatriating the Gweagal shield is to document which other artefacts and Sacred objects have been taken outside of Australia and locate where they are in the UK & Europe.
As uncle Vincent was given a private viewing of the Sacred objects from the Northern Territory (which only initiated men are allowed to see) we put our investigator hats on and went through the handwritten catalogue of their Aboriginal Collection which was written in the 1800s.
As we turned the yellowed pages of the 18th century handwritten German catalogue we were completely shocked to see the words ‘Botany Bay 1770’.
A ripple of excitement went through the crew as we wondered what it was, whether this might be a spear or a even a shield ?? The curators kindly took us to the area where the items were held.
It was a Boomerang and a Shield that were also taken by Cook from Botany Bay that day of first contact in 1770 ! We had found the brother shield !!
Could this be the shield held by the warrior that stood next to Cooman ??
This shield is of the same style and covered in the same white ochre as the Gweagal shield in the British Museum. It appears to be made from the same wood (Red Mangrove) and has the same style of handle.
Rodney was allowed to hold and connect with the shield and Boomerang that were stolen by violent force from his Ancestors by James Cook on April 29 1770, the day the British landed in Australia. This is the first time a Gweagal Man has held this shield for 246 years.
If it hadn’t of been for our tour guide Marion discovering this in the old handwritten catalogue we would have left that museum having no idea this was there !
Continuing our line of journalistic questioning we discovered that these two artefacts of first contact were bought at auction by the Germans in the 1800’s. Our suspicion is that John Montague , the earl of Sandwich (who payed for the first voyage of the Endeavour) auctioned off a large number of the artefacts from Cook's first voyage to make his money back. It is fortunate that these artefacts survived World War 2 as Berlin was heavily bombed by the allies. There are many, many Aboriginal artefacts and Sacred objects in the museums of Germany.
The difference between the Berlin Museum and the British Museum is that in Berlin we were treated with respect.
We have begun the process of making the relationships to creating links back to the Original Communities where these artefacts come from to help museum to tell their story properly and to get some of them back home to Australia.
Our meeting with the Berlin museum of ethnography was positive. They seem very keen to work with communities back home in regards to identifying unknown artefacts and building relationships with Indigenous communities in Australia to learn the story of the artefacts they have in their collection, how to respectful display them in their cultural context and repatriation of the Sacred objects.
The Berlin Ethnological Museum is in the progress of moving to another building so some things were already shipped out but they seem keen for further talks about how the new displays would be presented when the new building opens in 2019 which could be an exciting opportunity to spread real stories from Aboriginal Australia throughout the population of Germany.
There appears to be the beginnings of a decent conversation amongst German institutions about dealing with its colonial legacy and strong corrolations being drawn between stolen art and artefacts from the nazi period with stolen objects from the colonial period, they are interested in further talks and possibility of bringing out more speakers and consultants from Australia to discuss their Aboriginal Collections.
