SYDNEY – Australian Aborigines said Friday they will ask Britain's Prince William for help in finding and returning the head of an indigenous warrior when he visits Sydney next week.
William, 27, will meet several indigenous leaders on Tuesday on his first trip to Australia since visiting as a baby with his parents Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana in 1983.
Source: AFP
- Elder Michael Mundine of the Aboriginal Housing Company said he believed the prince "has his mother's heart" and would understand the request to recover the remains of the warrior Pemulwuy.
- "He is from a different generation and, because he is young, I think he will understand that Pemulwuy needs to come home to his lands," Mundine, who will meet with the prince in disadvantaged, inner-city Redfern, told The Australian.
- Pemulwuy, who was born around 1750, opposed the British settlement and was described by Sydney's then governor Philip King as "a terrible pest to the colony" but also "a brave and independent character".
- When the warrior was shot dead in 1802, his head was cut off and believed to have been placed in a jar and sent to England. Its location is now unknown.
- The return of Aboriginal remains is an important issue for indigenous Australians who are lobbying British museums for their repatriation.
- Rob Welsh, who chairs the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, said he was concerned about "the remains of all our ancestors".
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