This week I will travel to Germany representing the Minister for the Arts, the Hon Tony Burke MP in my role as Special Envoy for the Arts to join a delegation of First Nations Australians who are repatriating ancestral remains back to Country.

I will be attending a ceremony at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig on 17 November at which ancestors will be returned to their First Nations community representatives.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the remains of many First Nations Australians were separated from their country and sent to museum collections overseas. This caused profound and ongoing pain to First Nations people.

Repatriations such as this are an important step in Australia’s journey towards reconciliation.

The Australian Government has supported the repatriation of ancestors from overseas for over 30 years as part of its commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since 1990, more than 1,600 ancestors have been returned to Australia.

It’s a privilege to be part of what will be an important step in healing and truth-telling and I welcome the cooperation of the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony in the repatriation of these ancestors.

In bringing these ancestors home, we strive to show them the dignity and respect that they were denied in being taken away from Country.