Remains of Aboriginal stockman leave SA Museum after 60 years
An Aboriginal stockman is returning to his ancestral lands in the state’s north, but thousands of other Indigenous remains are still in storage waiting to travel home to Country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the name of a deceased person.
The remains of Aboriginal stockman Thomas Cowell have been held by the South Australian Museum for the past six decades. Today marks the beginning of his return to ancestral lands, where he will be reburied this week.
It comes as the nation marks Reconciliation Week this week, as well as 59 years since the 1967 Referendum that recognised Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution.
A travelling group of Cowell’s living descendants will make their way from Adelaide to Coober Pedy, where they will be joined by members of the South Australian police force and continue on to Witjira National Park for a smoking ceremony.
Mourners, including family, community, police and representatives from the South Australian Museum, will camp in the park overnight ahead of reburial on Thursday, May 28.
Cowell’s relative Raymond Finn said that “it’s a special time for Thomas to go home”.
Anna Russo, who is the South Australian Museum’s Aboriginal Heritage and Repatriation Manager, said it was unusual to repatriate an ancestor whose name was known and who died so recently.
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“We’re really pleased that we’ve been able to work together over the past few years to confirm the identity of Tom and understand, at least, the last parts of his life, and to make the arrangements to return him back to community and Country,” she said.
“So, there’s still quite a journey to go, but we’re proud Thomas is the first ancestor to leave the new facility, the new temporary keeping place.”
South Australian Museum director Samantha Hamilton said there was still a lot of work to do to repatriate Aboriginal remains.
“This work is hard, and it will continue. It’s ongoing. We’ve got a lot of work to continue doing, and we’re really committed to doing it, and so, this is just the beginning,” she said.
Arts Minister and Attorney-General Kyam Maher said that “it is a significant day with the return of Mr Cowell to his Country with his table”.
“Through a lot of work from people at the museum and people who are Southern Arrernte relatives, his remains were able to be identified, and today, he will start the journey back, where he will be laid to rest,” he said.
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Maher has given an exemption for the reburial ceremony under the Burial and Cremation Act
Cowell was a Lower Southern Arrernte (Irrwanyere) man who drove cattle in the state’s far north. He died of natural causes on March 27, 1959, and was found dead in his swag at Kopperamanna Bore.
Local police were called to document his death before burying him at a nearby dam. The gravesite was disturbed by local flooding in 1966, and police returned to collect his remains. As police could not find any family, his remains were sent to the South Australian Museum, where they have been held for the past six decades.
References in the State Records, including a 1997 interview with the late Elder Bingey Lowe, as well as a PhD thesis on the western Simpson Desert, helped to identify Cowell. It indicated he was most likely a southern Arrernte who was a worker at Mt Dare Station, and an uncle of the late Brownie Doolan.
Oral history and Elders helped identify Cowell’s current extended family, who were notified and asked for Cowell to be returned to Country and be buried within the Witjira National Park near Mt Dare.
The South Australian Museum board currently holds nearly 5000 ancestral remains from Australian and overseas Indigenous populations, including 3700 from South Australian burial sites.
It has repatriated hundreds of ancestors in recent years, with remains from the South Australian Museum among the 500 of Kaurna ancestors who were laid to rest at Wangayarta memorial park in October 2025.
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