http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Historic-breastplate-barred-from-sale/2007/04/23/1177180554694.html

The South Australian government has barred a ceremonial breastplate linked to the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition to cross Australia in 1860 from being sold.

The 20-centimetre brass breastplate, valued at up to $200,000 was found by two brothers, Eric and Klaus Ganzert, in South Australia's far north-east in 2001.

It was to have been auctioned on Tuesday but Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jay Weatherill said he had stepped in to declare it an Aboriginal object of significance and prevented the sale going ahead.

"I have satisfied myself that it is an item of Aboriginal heritage and now it's a question of investigating its true ownership."

Welcome back AN, haven't seen you here in a while. Glad to see you haven't lost your form.

freediver wrote on May 28^th, 2007 at 3:39pm:


Thanks. ive been away on business. good to be back.

that petition to class the breastplate as an item of aboriginal significance has riased the $$ from $100, 000 to $4MILL. Admittedly the gantzert bros have to give half of that to the aboriginal people, so they can expect a 2000% increase on their find. Not a bad result for all concerned
isn't it....... you nationalistic shitheads?

Not angry, just offended.
I don't think anyone (including the Ganzert bros) wanted the find to go offshore, now whoever buys it will have to provide it for display 1 yr out of 4 in Oz, and pay a bigger ticket price both to the finders and the original owners. 
Win Aust history + win ganzert bros + win to the folks who (after all) earned the medal.
And yes, it is a significant moment in australian history when 2 german/aussie brothers -stumble accross an icon of cooperation between aboriginal people and anglo explorers lost in the sands of time whilst pig shooting.
to say 'our history, not the abo's' kinda fails to capture the moment - dontcha think?

 

Okay, the breast plate is akin to a medal - one of three given to aboriginals in recognition of the service they offered to burke and wills. They fed Burke and Wills and other members of the exploration party - but Burke scared them aff by shooting his pistol in the air. He and Wills died of starvation after that. Another member of their party accepted their help (John King) - and for that reason, was the sole survivor.

The breastplates were 'Presented to______ by the Exploration Committee of Victoria for the humanity shown to the explorers Burke Wills and King 1861' - or so reads the inscription on the actual breastplate. It was a medal given in recognition of service, so yes, it did belong to an aboriginal person. We know only 3 medals were created, and Howitt (the bushman sent to recue King) names in his journal 5 people who were of the greatest help to the Burk&Wills party: Tchukulow, Mungallee, Toquunter, Pitchery, Borokow and Pruriekow, and Carrawaw. It's a fair guess that the breastplate originally belonged to one of these aboriginal people.

If someone were to find my grandfather's war medals - I would hope I'd have some sort of claim over them. Failing that I'd wish Veterans affairs could halt a sale whilst they looked into the matter. 

Also, it wasn't claimed to be an 'aboriginal artefact' but an 'object of significance' to aboriginal people. Please tell me that we can say to the aboriginal people that it is significant to their cultural history that at one time they recieved gratitude from the colonial government for the help they offered men in need - even after being chased off with a gun.

The amazing thing about this it is such a significant for both black and white history - your quip about 'the first gun used to shoot aboriginals' shows you're aware how rare proof of aboriginal and colonial cooperation is. The fact it has positive cultural relevance to both black and white is a rare thing.

Find it, save it and preserve it. There's precious little we've got to proove that aboriginal people have been treated well at times in our nation's history.      

ignorant opinions are usually offensive... and frustrating. And in this case - just wrong. Everyone has the right to their opinion, but you want to express it, it's only courteous to have some idea what you're on about.