Disarming the Resistance: Police Collecting of Indigenous Australian Cultural Property for Museums

This article examines the history, legality and modern implications of police collecting of Indigenous Ancestral Remains and cultural property, and the role of museums and governments in encouraging activity. It is well known that police perpetrated violence against First Nations throughout the colonial period, but their role in supplying Indigenous ancestral bodily remains and cultural heritage objects to domestic and overseas museums is little understood, nor too is whether they exceeded or abused their powers in doing so. Revealing this history is of profound importance to First Nation peoples seeking to know what happened to the remains of their Ancestors and items of cultural property, often of profound cultural significance, so as to determine their future, which may be to secure their return. Examining four known collections held by the National Museum of Victoria, the South Australian Museum and the British Museum, we argue that the current extent of police involvement in collecting is little known, although it seems clear that police collections share a distinctive pattern of focusing on objects classified by museums as weapons. The article then considers police complicity for the collecting of Ancestral Remains and in conclusion discusses the question of the legality of police collecting, and its implications for museums inheriting colonial era collections today.