Australia to rebury ancient Indigenous Mungo remains

SYDNEY — Australia’s oldest human remains, dating back at least 40,000 years, will be reburied near the Outback site at Mungo Lakes where they were first uncovered, the Australian government announced on Wednesday.

The ancestral remains of 108 people, including the most famous bones known as the Mungo Man and Lady, will be interred near their original resting place in the Mungo National Park — about 11 hours drive west of Sydney, NSW Environment Minister James Griffin said.

“While the discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady helped scientists establish that Aboriginal people have been in Australia for more than 42,000 years, it’s time to let their spirits rest in peace,” Griffin said.

The discoveries at Lake Mungo and Willandra Lakes between 1960 and 1980 redefined the anthropological understanding of Australia, pushing back the estimates of when humans first arrived on the continent by tens of thousands of years.

Mungo Lady is still among the earliest evidence of cremation in the world.

Further research of rock shelters in the Northern Territory has since extended evidence of Indigenous Australians, believed to be the world’s oldest continuous culture, to at least 65,000 years.

After their excavation, the remains were removed from the site and taken away for study without permission from traditional owners.

Decades of campaigning by Indigenous elders led to the return of the remains to the World Heritage site at Mungo National Park in 2017.

Patsy Winch — chair of the Aboriginal Advisory Group representing Paakantji, MutthiMutthi and Ngiyampaa people from the area — welcomed the decision.

“Finally, after all that time has passed, the voices of the elders have been heard, and I am thankful that these ancestral remains will finally be laid to rest the traditional way, in country,” Winch said in a statement.

The government said the decision to rebury the bones was decided after an “extensive community consultation” and will be carried out in accordance with the wishes of the traditional owners of the land.