The story of Yagan’s head is a shameful reminder of colonialism’s legacy | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Thu, 31/08/2017 - 11:17am

The return of Yagan’s head to his Noongar descendents was overshadowed 20 years ago by the death of Princess Diana. But the moment had added poignancy for the Noongar, writes Paul Daley, for whom Yagan was a warrior-prince

Exactly two decades ago Britain officially handed over to a delegation of Western Australian Noongar people the head of Yagan, an Aboriginal warrior murdered on the Swan River near Perth in 1833.

It was an important moment of spiritual healing for the Noongar and a critical step in their conciliation with Great Britain, whose officials – at least at a local level – had come, finally, to assist in returning Yagan’s head, and thus his spirit, to his country.

I don’t want excuses by the government as they’ve been given for years over the [Elgin] marbles in Greece ... we want that head back when I leave the shores of England. I want to take that head back with me next week. That’s the direction that’s been given to me by my elders, my superiors, in Western Australia ... Yagan’s head must return to Australia with me and I’m not going to leave without it. It’s very important to us. It’s a spiritual obligation that we have and it’s something that the British Government don’t fully understand.

That’s always been there. It’s basically a racist country, Australia. It’s one that needs to be looked at more particularly because of their attitude towards our traditional ways. They don’t really recognise us as having our own traditions, our own religion and our own rituals.