First Aboriginal remains to be returned from U.S.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A group of Aboriginal elders on Saturday left Australia for the United States to bring home the remains of 33 ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute, the first Aboriginal remains to be returned from the United States.

Aborigines have fought for decades for the return of ancestral remains from overseas universities and museums where they have been taken for scientific and anthropological studies.

Aborigines have inhabited Australia for some 45,000 years and have the world's longest living culture. They believe that their spirit can not settle until it is reunited with their land, which they regard as their mother.

"Sixty years after leaving our shores, these are the first indigenous Australian remains to be returned from a major American institution," said Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin.

The remains of 33 Aborigines from the Gunbalanya and Groote Eylandt communities in Arnhem Land in northern Australia are held in the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History.

In 1948 the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land collected the remains of 46 Aborigines from four communities in Arnhem Land; Gunbalanya, Groote Eylandt, Yirrkala and Milingimbi.

Aboriginal elder Jacob Nayinggul from Groote Eylandt believes the collection may include the remains of their grandmothers.

"Most of us can only begin to imagine how the grandchildren and great-grandchildren must be feeling, knowing that after such a long time they will soon be able to lay their ancestors to rest," Macklin said in a statement.

On their arrival in Australia, Aborigines will stage ancient welcoming home ceremonies before laying the remains to rest in private ceremonies.

The return of the ancestral remains follows the recent return of three remains from Britain to the Ngarrindjeri community in South Australia earlier in this month.

The Australian government is currently negotiating the repatriation of indigenous remains with a number of countries.

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by)

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