Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Indigenous groups look to ancient DNA to bring their ancestors home

Local communities and geneticists are working together to sequence DNA from remains that were taken from their homelands decades ago.
  1. Nicky Phillips
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

David Edwards, a Mutthi Mutthi Elde,r prepares to welcome Mungo Man back in a ceremony.

David Edwards, a Mutthi Mutthi elder, welcomes the return of remains that had been taken long ago. Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty

Several years ago, Gudju Gudju Fourmile welcomed back several members of his Yidinji community who had been taken from their homes in northern Australia almost a century ago. Like many other Indigenous communities in Australia, the Yidinji have worked for decades to bring the bodies of their ancestors home — which Aboriginal communities describe as returning to Country.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 568, 294-297 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01167-w

References

  1. Wright, J. L. et al. Sci. Adv. 4, eaau5064 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Malaspinas, A. et al. Nature 538, 207–214 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Tobler, R. et al. Nature 544, 180–184 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Rasmussen, M. et al. Nature 523, 455–458 (2015).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Moreno-Mayar, J. V. et al. Science 362, eaav2621 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links