These Wiradyuri Elders are celebrating the return of artefacts taken from Country over a century ago

It was a long journey home for the precious items, and the Elders were involved every step of the way.

Mawang Gaway Wiradyuri Gallery Reference Group members Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Aunty Mary Atkinson and Uncle James Ingram with Regional Officer of the Museum of the Riverina Sam Leah.

The efforts of local Elders have been rewarded, with their push for the return of Wiradyuri artefacts finally coming to fruition.

A parrying shield, a shovel and five clubs have all returned to Country after they were taken more than a century ago.

For the community, the artefacts represent a significant connection between the land and the history of its First Peoples.

"They mean history, they mean an existence of our people," Wiradyuri Elder Aunty Mary Atkinson told NITV News.

"It proves that our people were here forever, looked after our environment, our Country and cultivated it."

The seven objects, a parrying shield, a shovel and five clubs, have a deep connection to the area as they were all collected around the 1860s on Ganmain Station on Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri Country.

The journey home

The items were taken from Ganmain Station, around 50 kilometres northwest of Wagga Wagga, in the 1860s, and were eventually donated to the Australian Museum's First Nations collection in Sydney.

After a four-year consultation with the Wagga Wagga-based Indigenous Reference Group, the items have finally been returned.

Their journey back to Country began with a ceremony held at the Australian Museum earlier this month. The objects were handed over to members of the Mawang Gaway Wiradyuri Gallery Reference Group.

Wiradyuri Elder Aunty Cheryl Penrith during the Smoking Ceremony performed by Raymond Weatherall at the handover ceremony of the seven Wiradyuri objects in the Fragrance Gardens in Cook and Philip Park, Woolloomooloo.

A closed ceremony was also held to welcome the objects back onto County.

Wiradyuri Elder Aunty Cheryl Penrith said it was lovely to be there to see the items returned.

"We have been involved in every aspect of the return and how that was going to happen, who should be involved, where we should stop on the way home so it's been a really lovely process," she told NITV News.

The objects will remain on display at the Museum of the Riverina when it re-opens to the public at the end of February 2023.

Mawang Gaway Wiradyuri Gallery Reference Group members Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Aunty Mary Atkinson and Uncle James Ingram view the seven objects, now installed in the new Wiradyuri Gallery at the Museum of the Riverina.

Regional officer of the Museum of the Riverina, Sarah Leah said stories of Wiradyuri survival will be at the forefront of all galleries in the museum.

"To show that our Wiradyuri people did not step back or weren't pushed to the edges. They actually stayed here, lived and worked here... even through the worst stages of colonisation," she told NITV News.

Wiradyuri Elder Uncle James Ingram says while it is good to see the objects on display, the plan is for the community to eventually create their own final resting place for the objects.

"This museum is only the start of their journeys back on Wiradyuri Country. We hope to one day have our own Aboriginal Wiradyuri keeping place," he told NITV News.