After more than 170 years at a university in Scotland, the remains of a young Aboriginal man killed on his traditional land have been returned home.
The skull of the unknown man was retrieved from Tasmania in the 1830s and had been kept at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, since the early 1850s.
The man is understood to be part of the Big River tribe and was shot in the River Shannon in the island state's Central Highlands.
Andry Sculthorpe and elder Jeanette James, from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, arrived in Hobart with the remains on Thursday.
Also brought from Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum was a shell necklace made by a woman on a Bass Strait island in the 1880s.
The centre, which has been fighting for the necklace's return since 1994, says it is the first time in 27 years that a Tasmanian cultural item has been returned abroad.
“This repatriation is a significant moment for our society. It acknowledges the injustices of the past and allows us to bring our ancestor back to his country where his spirit can be free while he is laid to rest in his traditional homeland,” said Nala Mansell, from the centre.
