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Tasmania s Aboriginal community outraged over government control of sacred Wargata Mina cave site
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FebFebruary 2021 at 1:16am
Members of Tasmania s Aboriginal community on a trip to Wargata Mina cave earlier this year.
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It is owned and managed by the Aboriginal community but the sacred Wargata Mina cave in southwest Tasmania is still being controlled by the State Government, according to Tasmania s Aboriginal Centre (TAC).
Key points:
The Wargata Mina cave in southwest Tasmania contains a series of hand stencils dating back over 15,000 years
The site is owned and managed by Tasmania s Aboriginal people, with the title transferred to the Aboriginal Land Council in 1995
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When she was at her lowest, before becoming the sort of person who has the ear and admiration of premiers and governors, Emma Lee worked at a petrol station. It was 2011. She was 38. Sheâd âcrashed and burnedâ, as she describes it, losing her first marriage, her money, her mojo. After a successful career as an archaeologist, and a manager at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, her whole world had shrunk to the grey concrete forecourt at Woolworths Caltex in her home town of Wynyard, on Tasmaniaâs north-west coast. For 18 months she healed, slowly rebuilding herself and, from behind the kiosk counter, finding the inspiration for a new approach to Aboriginal rights â a method that would, only four years later, start to bear fruit with then Tasmanian premier, Will Hodgman.
Interview
The Mission: Nala Mansell On The Return Of The Apology To The Tasmanian Aboriginal Community For The Theft of Ancient Artefacts
The Royal Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery have apologised ahead of the return of 14,000-year-old Aboriginal artefacts to their original site. The apology was a culmination of decades of lobbying and advocacy and imploring various administrations throughout the years to simply do the right thing. Nala Mansell, Campaign Coordinator, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre joins
Mission host Daniel James to describe the struggle.
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The Royal Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery have formally apologised to Tasmania s Aboriginal community over the mistreatment and theft of cultural artefacts.
Monday s apology was part of the return of 14,000-year-old petroglyphs to their original site at Preminghana, in the state s north-west.
The petroglyph slabs were taken from Preminghana in the 1960s, and given to TMAG in Hobart and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Galley in Launceston.
The pieces that were taken to Hobart were displayed at the TMAG from 1967 until 2005. They have since been kept in storage.
The petroglyphs were removed in 1962 from Preminghana, and will be returned to the site in early March 2021.