Film

Etched in Bone

Age rating

E

Director

Martin Thomas

Year

2018

"This is an exceptional piece of filmmaking, governed by qualities of restraint and attunement that are essential to its subject." - Jane Goodall.

Drawing on original footage from National Geographic, Etched in Bone explores the impact of one notorious bone theft by a member of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Hundred of bones were stolen and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, until it became known to Arnhem elders in the late 1990s. The return of the sacred artefacts was called for, resulting in a tense standoff between indigenous tribespeople and the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian.