New NMA Council Chair pledges to repatriate First Nations remains

When Clare Wright first saw the human remains in the National Museum of Australia’s collection, she drew breath.

Skeletons and individual parts of real people were a legacy collection, pieces left to the NMA when the Institute of Anatomy, a natural history museum, closed in Canberra in 1985.

The NMA holds about 3000 sets of human remains, although they do not necessarily represent 3000 people. This legacy collection also includes about 1200 sacred and sensitive objects.

“It was shocking,” she said, “a real spine-tingling moment for me to stand in the room where they were kept.

“My sense of grief and remorse was profound. I’m not a First Nations person so it’s a massive but so very important responsibility to care for these remains and ensure they are returned to country.”

She said her challenge going forward would be to “responsibly and with cultural sensitivity” reconnect the remains with community.

“It is an absolute priority for me to repatriate them to their ancestors where possible or negotiate with community how we can get this done.

“We have a strategic plan that’s in line with national cultural policy, that we put First Nations first – that is our absolute undertaking from the bottom of the NMA to the top and everyone is in alignment with that.”

Last week, Professor Wright, an award-winning historian, began her new role as chair of the NMA Council.

Her credentials for the role are impeccable: she has already spent the past two years as a council member, has been a judge for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in Australian history, was on the National Cultural Policy Expert Advisory Panel in 2022 and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of her service to literature. She is also passionate about the Canberra collecting institution.

Announcing her appointment, Arts Minister Tony Burke said it also made history. With the director of the NMA, Katherine McMahon, appointed in February, it’s the first time in the museum’s history that two women have secured the top jobs.

Mr Burke also appointed three other women to the NMA council for three years, Professor Ann McGrath AM, Professor Megan Davis and Janine Freeman, describing them all as distinguished women in their respective fields.

Professor Wright has served on the NMA Council since October 2022. As chair, she is responsible for the overall performance of the organisation, including setting the strategic direction and establishing goals for management.

“It is an incredible honour to be appointed chair of this remarkable national collecting institution, a repository and caretaker for the rich material heritage that tells Australia’s First Nations, colonial, 20th century and contemporary stories in all their complexity and diversity,” she said.

“I look forward to working closely with the council and the Museum’s amazing team of curators, researchers, guides and administrators to bring these stories – as well as international blockbuster exhibitions – to life.”

Describing herself as a “civic historian”, she said she prefers to talk to people about history through mediums ranging from podcasts to writing books rather than just to other academics.

It was also important, she said, to connect with a “young” museum like the NMA, where there was no need to unpick the past pre-colonisation collections for today’s audiences.

Professor Wright has another excellent credential when it comes to the NMA. She simply loves the place.

“I’ve developed a sort of familiarity with the place because I visited so often when my three children were younger.

“But one thing I’d really like to do now that I’m here is to go through the galleries with someone who has never been here before, someone with fresh eyes who is seeing this remarkable collection for the first time.

“What we have out on display is just the tip of the iceberg.

“I have been privileged enough to see what is beyond in some of the storage areas, going for guided tours with amazing curators like Sophie Jensen through what we call the ‘back blocks’.”

Asked if she had a favourite item in the NMA collection, she said although it was like naming her favourite child, she said it would have to be the Yirrkala bark paintings – petitions that were presented to the Parliament’s House of Representatives to have the land rights of the Yolingu in Arnhem Land recognised.

It was the first time documents that connected First Nations relationships to their land were recognised by the Australian Parliament.

Professor Wright, who has lived on that country, is an adopted member of Arnhem Land. The bark paintings have been a passion of hers for many years, and she has a book coming out on them later this year.

To learn more about the NMA’s collections, including its current blockbuster exhibition, Discovering Ancient Egypt, visit the NMA.