Museum der Kulturen Basel rewarded for return of cult object
Published: Thursday, Nov 28th 2024, 19:20
Updated At: Thursday, Nov 28th 2024, 18:30
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In a festive ceremony on Thursday, the Museum der Kulturen Basel returned a Thulu tree to the Australian aboriginal community of the Gamilaraay. The recipients returned the favor with a new trunk modeled on the original.
For many decades, the centuries-old carved tree trunk slumbered more or less unnoticed in the museum's depot. Until the actual owners from the east coast of Australia learned of its existence during a visit to Basel in 2022 and informed the museum of its special significance as a spiritual cult object and also as an actual ancestor and family member.
This was the beginning of a restitution process that museum director Anna Schmid described as wonderful. The relationship with the Gamilaraay was characterized by mutual respect, openness and a good dose of humour, she said in her speech. The museum had been able to learn a lot in the process.
At the ceremonial signing of the restitution declaration, Australia's ambassador to Switzerland, Elisabeth Day, the President of the Government of Basel, Conradin Cramer, and the representatives of the Gamilaraay community, Greg Bulingha and Wayne Griffiths, also described the restitution process as exemplary and amicable.
The museum presented with a new Thulu
The centuries-old tree will now start its journey home at the end of the week. Two years earlier, representatives of the community from Australia had already linked the Thulu back to their community in a ceremony.
Its place in the "Everything Lives" exhibition is taken by a new Thulu that was carved especially for the museum. The community insisted on this gift, writes the museum. The Gamilaraay wanted their culture to continue to be shared with people in Switzerland, Europe and the world in this way.
The Thulu tree that has now returned was brought to Basel by Basel adventurer and collector Lucas Staehelin in the 1940s. He had bought it from what is now the Australian Museum in Sydney. Both Staehelin and the museum were aware at the time that this object was actually subject to an export ban.
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