Ministers Mark Germany’s Return of Indigenous Australian Artefacts

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock with Lewis O’Brien, the oldest living Kaurna man during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna People from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, at Possum Park / Pirltawardli in Adelaide, May 3, 2024. AAP Image/Michael Errey

Four significant cultural heritage items sent to Germany in 1840 by two Lutheran missionaries have been handed back to the Kaurna people in South Australia by a German museum.

The 180-year-old-plus items, a kathawirri (sword), tantanaku (club or bark peeler), wirnta (spear), and wikatyi (net) were officially returned during a ceremony at Adelaide’s Pirltawardli (Possum Park)—the location of the original exchange between Kaurna people and German missionaries.