Walton, Alastair --- "Raiders of the Lost Tjuringa" [1985] AboriginalLawB 33; (1985) 1(14) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 4

• Raiders Of The Lost Tjuringa

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Raiders of the Lost Tjuringa

by Alastair Walton

Tjuringa is a term meaning sacred object, according to the Strehlow orthography of the Aranda people. Over the last several months a quest for the Strehlow Collection, a massive set of artefacts sacred to the Aboriginal people of central Australia, has involved the Northern Territory government, the federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the Aboriginal people of central Australia and the members of Strehlow Foundation. This collection became news around the time of the last federal elections after it had been reportedly sent out of the country.

So far only two small crates have been found. They arrived in mid May in Darwin destined for the Darwin Museum's vault. The arrival of the crates was the result of negotiations between the Strehlow Foundation, the Territory's Minister for Community Development, Mr Barry Coulter and the Museum's Director. Their return to the Territory was a gesture of goodwill from the. Strehlow Foundation after they had supposedly surreptitiously exported the whole collection out of Australia in May 1984.

However it seems after news reports (The News, NT, 5 May 1985, p. 2) and comments by government sources that the return of the whole collection, which would be two truck container loads, depends on the Strehlow Foundation members responsible for their export being granted indemnities against prosecution. This decision depends on the Federal Government as any offence committed was related to the Customs Act.

The Strehlow Collection was originally housed in Adelaide and was reportedly exported in tea chests labelled 'household and personal effects'. Customs regulations require articles of ethnological interest from or relating to Aborigines to gain a permit allowing export from the Federal Minister for Industry and Commerce. The Foundation had made no request to export the collection.

The collection was allegedly exported a short time before the enactment of the Federal Government's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage (Interim Protection) Act, which gives the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs the power to declare and protect nominated objects. The Foundation supposedly feared government acquisition.

The Chair of the Strehlow Foundation, Mr John Bannon, is a mining consultant and was the National Party's leading Senate candidate in South Australia at the last federal elections. Another executive member of the Foundation is Mr Bob Liddle, who is also a mining consultant. The late Professor Ted Strehlow's widow is another member of the Foundation's executive.

Mr Bannon initially refused to disclose the whereabouts of the collection saying the central Australian Aboriginal people had formally given the objects to the Professor who then entrusted them to his widow and the Foundation. Several anthropologists have said this may not be correct, that the Aboriginal people would have given the objects to Strehlow for safe-keeping but not for removal from central Australia, or to be held by women (though this is not sure for all the artefacts).

The director of the Aboriginal Arts Board, Mr Gary Foley, was reported as saying the export was prompted by political and financial considerations (SMH, 14 November 1984).

Mr Bannon is as former consultant to Roxby Management Services, the consortium operating the Roxby Downs (uranium, copper and gold) mine and to Manu Garumpa, a Christian Aboriginal group which favours mining and is considered politically conservative. Robert John Brown, the respondent in Gerhardy v Brown [(1985)13 AboriginalLB 8)] is a member of Manu Garumpa.

Ms Rosie Monks, former President of the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, and an associate of the Manu Garumpa group, defended the Foundation's move because she knew and trusted the Foundation's executives and was informed about the collection's location (SMH, 14 November 1984).

At this stage a Northern Territory spokesman has indicated the lynchpin to the return of the Collection depends on the provision of indemnity to the Foundation's executives responsible for the exporting of the artefacts. This would seem to cancel the belief of many who were not convinced the Collection had left the country. All indications are that final negotiations for indemnity are close and that the Collection will find a final resting place in a research centre that would be established in Alice Springs. The amount of consultation with Aboriginal people on this matter would not seem to have been on a high level, so their response to the situation will be an important factor for the exact future of the Collection.