The return of an Indigenous Australian ancestor from the Five Continents Museum

Since 1889, the mummified body of an Ancestor of the Gimuy Walubara Yidindji People of Far North Queensland has been in the possession of Munich’s State Museum of Ethnology, now the Five Continents Museum. In this article, we tell of how this Ancestor was taken in 1876 at a traditional ceremonial site inland from Trinity Bay, on the Far North Queensland coast. We also document his display at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879– 1882, and the Melbourne Exhibition of 1884–1885, during which time he was offered for sale to several museums, before being acquired by Max Buchner (1846–1921), director of the State Museum, during his visit to Australia in 1888–1889. We then review what ethnological interest in the Ancestor’s remains there was from his arrival in Munich to the present day, when arrangements were made for his return to his community for burial.