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Cultural Artefacts

'Historic homecoming': New York's The Met returns 14 looted sculptures to Cambodia

The sculptures were looted from the country during a period of war and unrest and their return is like welcoming home the souls of ancestors, Cambodia's culture minister says. 
A Cambodia statue of a Buddha.

Artists document the closure of the Liddell Power Station

Seventeen people were allowed inside the coal-fired power station before creating their artwork.
ABC News Current
Duration: 2 minutes

Why it's time we stop hiding our memories in a box in the garage

This museum curator explains why we should bring our childhood toys, old band T-shirts and family heirlooms out of hiding and honour them for the memories they contain.
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Table strewn with old photos, cards, books, jewellery, a tea cup, small clock, carved jewellery box and pop culture ornament

Indigenous artefacts sent to Germany have returned to Adelaide Plains

The objects were given as gifts to Lutheran missionaries but are now back in Australia, as part of efforts to return First Nations items.
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Indigenous Artefacts, Homecoming: A kangaroo skin and other artefacts sit on a white plinth.
Duration: 1 minute 39 seconds

Why this Tassie devil tooth unearthed in a far corner of Australia could rewrite history

The tooth could provide further historical evidence of inter-community trading in Western Australia and was unearthed in Juukan Gorge, which made headlines in 2020 when its rock shelters were damaged by Rio Tinto blasts.
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Tasmanian Devil standing on leaves with mouth wide open

Returning artefacts to their traditional owners

In the 1920s, two mysterious objects were found in a North Queensland cane field. Now nearly 100 years later, they've been returned to their rightful owners.
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ABC News Current
Duration: 5 minutes 25 seconds

Traditional owners want mining boss sacked after 'two-storey high mound of earth' dumped on artefacts

A lawyer for Yugunga-Nya traditional owners believes loopholes in WA's legislation will allow Sandfire Resources to escape prosecution for disturbing sites near Meekatharra.
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Sandfire resources

Indigenous elder says government pressured her to alter application opposing mine near massacre site

More than 15,000 artefacts have been found in test pit excavations of the site near the 1818 massacre of six Aboriginal people camped by the Minnamurra River.
Woman standing outside with colourful top with ocean in background

Artefacts welcomed back to Anindilyakwa community

Indigenous leaders on a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria are celebrating the return of almost 200 artefacts from the Manchester Museum.
ABC News Current
Duration: 1 minute 47 seconds

'Special day' as artefacts collected from Groote Eylandt 70 years ago returned to Anindilyakwa

Groote Eylandt's Indigenous communities celebrate the return of 174 artefacts from the Manchester Museum, saying the move has encouraged them to start making and using them again.
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An Aboriginal man wearing a cap holds a small painting

British Museum seeks help to recover missing and stolen treasures

The British Museum launches a public hotline asking for help to locate some 2,000 missing artefacts, revealing they were mostly ancient Greek and Roman gems and jewellery.
People walking outside the British Museum in London at daytime

UK museum hands back more than 150 Indigenous artefacts

Community members travelled across the world to attend an emotional handover ceremony.
ABC News Current
Duration: 2 minutes 1 second

Global mission to return Cambodia's stolen $2.3m artefacts

The National Gallery of Australia has handed 3 rare bronze statues back to Cambodia, after an investigation found compelling evidence they'd been looted.
ABC News Current
Duration: 2 minutes 49 seconds

The role of the sari in telling women's stories

The sari is worn by women all over the world, but it’s much more than just a piece of clothing. India Now looks at the role the sari plays in telling women’s stories.
Updated
ABC News Current
Duration: 4 minutes 21 seconds

Clarice Beckett exhibition opens in Geelong

Geelong Gallery are holding an exhibition showcasing Clarice Beckett's work. Coinciding with the 100 year anniversary of her first exhibition, the show promises visitors a new interaction with her landscapes .
Updated
ABC News Current
Duration: 2 minutes 16 seconds

As floodwaters rose in an Indigenous community, art centre staff raced to save repatriated artefacts

Amid the devastation of the NT's flood zone, quick action by art centre staff saves Aboriginal artefacts that had just been repatriated to their community.
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Two people hold up a large Aboriginal painting

Cultural objects sent back to Mexico after seizure in Australia

The Australian Border Force intercepted the painting and small bowl when they arrived in Australian last year.
ABC News Current
Duration: 1 minute 31 seconds

Switzerland gives 2,500-year-old stone head sculpture back to Peru

Switzerland hands a large stone-carved head back to Peru, where it was sculpted around 2,500 years ago by one of the country's earliest civilisations, the culture office said.
A large stone-carved head from Peru that dates back 2,500 years.

Israel probes legality of US giving 2,700-year-old artefact back to Palestinians

An ivory spoon dating back 2,700 years that was recently repatriated to the Palestinian Authority from the United States sparks a dispute with Israel's new far-right government over cultural heritage in the occupied West Bank.
A 2,700-year-old ivory incense spoon on a stand.

Calls for British Museum to return 'icon of Egyptian identity'

Thousands of Egyptians are calling on the British Museum to return the Rosetta Stone, which enabled 19th-century scholars to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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The rosetta stone in a glass display cabinet in a room at the mueseum.

WWII bombs and 1920s physical culture program unearthed during Sydney home renovation

The discovery of likely WWII mortar shells beneath a Sydney home may have brought out the bomb squad, but the unearthing of a 1920s physical culture program is shedding light on the sport's Australian evolution.
A black and white image of Physical culture women in dresses and ballet shoes in a public area in Sydney.

For 59 years, the invaluable Yirrkala Bark Petitions hung on someone's wall, now the Yolgnu welcome its return

Northern Territory traditional owners travel to a small Kimberley town to recover a piece of Aboriginal heritage after it spent 59 years unaccounted for. 
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Two men holding a frame with a painting and document in it.

Before-and-after satellite images capture damage to 200 Ukraine historic sites

The United Nations' cultural and satellite agencies join forces to systematically track the impact of Russia's invasion on Ukraine's architecture, art, historic buildings and other cultural heritage.
Satellite images show damage to the Drama Theatre of Mariupol.

Archeologists unearth 2,700-year-old rock carvings at site bulldozed by Islamic State fighters

US and Iraqi archaeologists working to reconstruct a site bulldozed by Islamic State group fighters have unearthed extraordinary 2,700-year-old rock carvings among the ruins.
A man holds a brush up to the rock carving.

The mystery of how this boxing kangaroo found its way to an Irish club

Almost 40 years since Australia II won the America's Cup, the location of a piece of team memorabilia — a boxing kangaroo flag — is still unknown, but its search has unearthed a mystery on the other side of the world.
smiling holding a weathered boxing kangaroo flag in a frame.