A grave omission: the quest to identify the dead in remote NT

Editor's note

In the remote Aboriginal community of Barunga in the Northern Territory, sons, daughters and grandchildren are unable to find the graves of their relatives in the local cemetery. As Claire Smith, Gary Jackson and Jordan Ralph write, for over a century there was no legal requirement that the location of graves in remote communities across the territory be recorded. Indigenous people had their own burial practices, with no tradition of headstones.

Archaeologists are now carrying out painstaking detective work to help communities find their loved ones’ remains and identify more than 100 unmarked graves.

Suzy Freeman-Greene

Section Editor: Arts + Culture

Top story

A bough shelter made for the funeral of W. Willika in the remote Northern Territory community of Barunga. Photo: Claire Smith

A grave omission: the quest to identify the dead in remote NT

Claire Smith, Flinders University; Gary Jackson, Flinders University; Jordan Ralph, Flinders University

In remote Northern Territory, most Aboriginal people have been buried in unmarked graves. Archaelogists are carrying out painstaking detective work to help communities find their loved ones' remains.

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