Coming Home: Sacred Larrakia Cultural Objects Returned from the US to Australia
In a moving ceremony at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles on May 20, 2025, eleven sacred cultural objects were formally returned to the Larrakia people of northern Australia. Among them were ten glass spearheads and a kangaroo tooth headband—ceremonial items of profound spiritual and cultural importance that have been absent from Larrakia Country for over a century.
This historic repatriation is more than a handover of artifacts—it is a powerful act of healing, truth-telling, and intergenerational reconnection.
The Larrakia, known as Saltwater People, are the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waters surrounding present-day Darwin in the Northern Territory.
These items, collected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and housed at the Fowler Museum for decades, will now be welcomed home and eventually displayed at the new Larrakia Cultural Centre, opening in mid-2026.
“They have a time capsule feel about them,” said Larrakia Custodian Darryn Wilson. “They are items that are created in the past that will allow future generations to appreciate Larrakia craftsmanship.”
The glass spearheads were originally taken from First Nations inmates at Darwin’s Fannie Bay Gaol in 1929 before becoming part of the vast collection owned by British pharmaceutical entrepreneur and collector Sir Henry Wellcome.
The kangaroo-tooth headband was acquired by the Wellcome Trust at an auction in 1934, just two years before Sir Henry’s death, as the collection began to be dispersed.
In the 1960s, these items—along with more than 30,000 others—were gifted to the Fowler Museum at UCLA, where they remained until their recent return to the Larrakia people.
Glass Spearheads
“There’s a number of different bottles they brought that were green. They were very heavy, like beer bottles and some that were like wine bottles with an indent on the bottom. There’s still some of these bottles you can find deep in the mangroves where the high tides have taken them up through the mangroves and up on the mudflats at the back,” Bill Risk, Senior Larrakia man.
“So, you have what you call a hammerstone which is usually not a large stone but it’s quite rounded, smooth and hard. And they would have got it to a rough stage, and they would have either used kangaroo bone or tooth from the jaw and they would have done the finer finishes to give it the edge. They would knap one then flip it over and do the opposite side to produce a nice balanced line and then you’re probably using a tooth as well to give it a serrated edge which is better for cutting especially when you’re spearing something.”
“The point on the end is what you use for finishing. Kangaroo tooth is hard, and the Old People probably would have used that for the finishing to create the serration. When it gets to that stage it gets quite thin on the edges, so you don’t want something that hard, but you need something hard enough to be able to pressure plate that edge off. Kangaroo teeth and jaw would have been the common one,” Roque Lee, Larrakia Man .
Chief’s Headband
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“Larrakia call it dangutjbella. That’s the kangaroo. And kangaroo’s Lore is man – he’s the Lore holder. So that makes sense with it being a chief’s. But we never called ours chief. We never had chief and queens – we never had that. We had councils of Elders, and we had men and women in charge of certain Dreamings and if you were the kangaroo man everyone would respect you for that. Dangutjbella, he would have been the protector of the dangutjbella, the man who had that. That would have been his identity – the boss for kangaroo. And when you got that kind of people, you can’t kill that animal in front of them. They sustain the environment through their presence. So, he would have been boss for kangaroo this bloke,” Robert Batji Mills, Larrakia Man .
Biliamuk, Senior Larrakia Man, photographed in 1890 wearing this type of Larrakia Headband. Source: Paul Foelsche collection, South Australian Museum.
“It will straight away connect them in their minds back to them Old People and get their mind thinking about who did this and how they did it. It would encourage them, I would think, to have a much closer feeling towards them Old People. They grow up today and they look around and they’ve got all of us Old People but to connect back a 100, 200 maybe 300 years, and further back and understand the technique and what they are seeing is a part of who we are and where we come from and our abilities to make these things. I think it would instantly connect their mind in an inquisitive manner back to them Old People and give them a yearning to understand and learn more about their Old People,” Bill Risk, Senior Larrakia Man.
“I think the Cultural Centre is going to be a wonderful thing. Not only for our mob and our young people, even our Old People will go in there and have a look and think back. You know, our mother’s and father’s and grandparents, they would have been able to see these things been made,” Bill Risk, Senior Larrakia Man.
The new Larrakia Cultural Centre, opens in mid-2026, at the feet of the Larrakia sacred site at Stokes Hill overlooking Darwin Harbour.
Repatriations continue
This is the second time the Fowler Museum has repatriated cultural heritage in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). The museum’s commitment to ethical stewardship has led it to facilitate returns not only to Australia but also to Ghana and other parts of the world.
The Larrakia items were originally donated to the museum through sources like the Wellcome Trust, which distributed Sir Henry Wellcome’s private collection after his death in 1936.
At the event, Larrakia Elders Tina Baum and Darryn Wilson were joined by key figures including Silvia Forni (Director, Fowler Museum), Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (Minister for Indigenous Australians), and Leonard Hill (CEO, AIATSIS).
Hill described the moment as a “significant return of treasures” that had been kept overseas for far too long. “These events reinvigorate cultural connections and promote healing and reconciliation more broadly,” he said.
Senator McCarthy praised the return as an important moment in safeguarding Indigenous cultural heritage and ensuring the stories of ancestors are passed on: “I look forward to seeing these cultural items eventually being displayed at the new Larrakia Cultural Centre in Darwin, where they can be shared with future generations.”
Silvia Forni echoed the sentiment, stating: “The return of these objects reinforces our dedication to ethical stewardship and deepens our partnerships with Indigenous communities.”
Through its Return of Cultural Heritage (RoCH) Program, AIATSIS has already helped repatriate more than 2,300 objects from international institutions. But each return is deeply personal. Mark Motlop, Larrakia Elder and Chairperson of the Larrakia Development Corporation, said:
“Today is an important milestone for the revitalisation and maintenance of Larrakia culture. It has been a long and emotional journey for Larrakia people in the repatriation of these items back to Larrakia Country—one that will facilitate healing and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge.”
This handover is part of a growing international movement that recognises the right of Indigenous communities to reclaim, care for, and share their cultural heritage. For the Larrakia people, it’s a moment of pride, relief, and homecoming—one that speaks not only to what was lost but to what is being restored.
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