Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.In a discovery that rewrote Australian history, a geologist named Jim Bowles came across a set of bones in a dry lake bed in outback New South Wales in 1974.
The skeleton turned out to be 42,000 years old – which meant the continent had been occupied for twice as long as was previously thought and that Aboriginal people belonged to the world’s oldest surviving culture.
“Mungo Man” – he was found in an area now known as Lake Mungo – made headlines around the world and his remains were meticulously studied. Now, 40 years on, Aboriginal elders are calling for him to be returned home. Estimated to have been about 50 when he died (a ripe old age for a hunter-gatherer), Mungo Man is stored at the archaeology department of the Australian National University (ANU). Bowles agrees he should be returned to his burial place. “[He] has spent too long in his cardboard box,” he told The Australian.
Although neither academics nor heritage authorities object to the bones being repatriated, the process is complex and delicate – particularly given Aboriginal sensitivities about ancestral remains, which in the past were seized and studied without permission. Some remain in collections overseas.
The situation is also complicated by erosion at Lake Mungo and the need to construct a special “keeping place” for the bones. Elders from three Mungo tribes visited his remains at the ANU last year. One elder, Warren Clark, said: “I felt really sick in the guts when I saw them. We were all appalled.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments