A Swedish museum has handed over the remains of at least 10 Aborigines to Australia, capping a several year-long debate over alleged grave plunder.
"Research has shown that graves were plundered and that remains were illegally smuggled out of Australia," Anders Bjorklund, head of the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm said.
The government has earlier ordered other museums including the National Museums for World Culture to repatriate similar remains.
The Museum of Ethnography has had the remains in its collections since the early 1900s.
Researcher Claes Hallgren earlier concluded that the remains were likely plundered from graves in Western Australia's Kimberley region by a Swedish expedition in 1910-11.
At the time, such remains were regarded to be interesting research material.
Bjorklund presided at the ceremony, along with Australian Ambassador to Sweden, Howard Brown, and a delegation representing Australia's indigenous community.
"The items and the remains are really of cultural significance to our people and they should come back to where they belong," Ismahl Croft from the Kimberley region told Swedish broadcaster SVT.
"In our beliefs and our culture we believe that when people pass on they go back to their traditional lands where their soul and their spirit rest forever," Croft added.
In 2004, the remains of 15 other individuals held in other Swedish museums were returned to Australia.
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