Aboriginal elder determined to return head from UK

ABC News, Sunday 13 July 1997 (0:54am AEST)

An assurance from Prime Minister John Howard to help a mission to retrieve the head of an Aboriginal warrior from London, is not having any impact on British bureaucracy.

The warrior, Yagan, led Aboriginal opposition to white settlement in Perth, but he was shot and beheaded in 1833.

His head was then taken to England as a souvenir and displayed in several museums before it was finally buried in 1964 [sic].

Aboriginal elder, Ken Colbung, has won the support of John Howard in trying to bring Yagan's head back to Perth.

But British authorities are reluctant to allow Yagan's skull to be exhumed from a Liverpool cemetery because it's buried beneath the bodies of stillborn children.

Mr Colbung says the skull can be removed without disturbing the remains of the children, and British authorities are coming up with constant excuses.

Mr Colbung says he won't leave Britain until his mission succeeds.

From a recent message posted to Leftlink about this matter]

Further to recent messages to fax UK politicians, the Home Office and the Australian High Commissioner, Neil Blewitt, it would be a good idea to send a copy of your fax or email to the UK newspapers. If they get enough mail, they may follow it up and make it harder for the bureaucrats to stone-wall Ken Colbung.

We have posted some addresses below and if anyone has more, please feel free to add them to the list.

It appears that Tony Blair may have changed his fax number and his email mailbox is full. If you can't get through, concentrate on the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Australian High Commissioner. Don't forget the newspapers!

Trudy Bray
Marg Hutton

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