News edition for 22 August 2026. Added to Nungya on 22 October 2026 as part of our retrospective news archive. Reporting reflects information available by the edition date.
Where an ancestral object is held, and who decides, are important parts of its story. A Gundungurra breastplate has returned to Country, with the community choosing the Wollondilly Heritage Centre and Museum as its place of safe keeping.
The Office for the Arts reported on 21 August that a ceremony acknowledging its return was held on 16 August. The Murrooin-Carradgie breastplate was made between 1820 and 1840 and bears the name of a Gundungurra man associated with the area now known as The Oaks.
The museum will house the object within its permanent Gundungurra Indigenous Exhibition. The announcement says this will keep it accessible, acknowledged and connected with its people.
The report also places the object within the difficult history of early European settlement, including displacement, violence, adaptation and Aboriginal resistance. Its return creates an opportunity for those histories to be understood through Gundungurra perspectives and local narratives.
This is a story about a material connection carried across generations. Preservation matters, and so does the relationship between the object, its people and the place in which it can now be encountered.
The linked article contains names of deceased people.
