Keeping the Gweagal Shield: Property and Truth in Matters of Post-colonial Redistribution
- Title
- Keeping the Gweagal Shield: Property and Truth in Matters of Post-colonial Redistribution
- Description
- For decades, the British Museum has been displaying an object in its collection as the shield which was used by Gweagal men defending against Cook's landing at Kamay in 1770. Following a loan of the shield to the National Museum of Australia in 2015/2016, Gweagal man Rodney Kelly lodged a claim with the British Museum asking for the shield to be repatriated. Soon after, the British Museum facilitated and partly funded research which aimed 'to test the argument – or widely held belief – that the shield was collected at Botany Bay in 1770' (Nugent and Sculthorpe 2018, 37). The research all but concluded that the shield was not collected at Cook's landing, and that that shield, if it exists, is now lost (Thomas 2018, 25). Despite this questioning of the shield's identity, it remains on prominent display in the British Museum's Enlightenment room
- Creator
- Keenan, Sarah
- Publisher
- Edinburgh University Press
- Date Issued
- 2023
- Bibliographic Citation
- Legalities; Vol. 3 Issue 2 (2023)
- Source
- Access e-journal