Narcha’s remains have been repatriated. But colonialism’s malevolence lingers | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Mon, 03/04/2017 - 5:06pm

As the remains of Ngadjon elder, Narcha, are repatriated from Berlin, I’m drawn again to the connection between he and Douglas Grant

Not far from my house is a first world war monument closely associated with perhaps Australia’s best-known Indigenous Anzac, Douglas Grant. I’ve known for a long time it was there. But as coincidence or perhaps just life has it, I’ve only really noticed the monument these past few weeks, just as the remains of one of Grant’s close relatives – Ngadjon elder Narcha, also known as Barry Clarke – were repatriated from Berlin’s Museum of Ethnology.

Consistent with tradition, the Ngadjon mummified Narcha/Clarke after his death early last century. German anthropologist Herman Klaatsch then stole the preserved body from the rainforest country on the tablelands during an Australian tour in 1904 and 1905. For many years the Ngadjon elder was displayed in a glass case in the Berlin museum.