Canberra. – A ceremony marked yesterday the successful repatriation of 200 blood samples from the Australian National University (UNA) to the Galiwin’ku community of Elcho Island in East Arnhem Land. 

The blood was collected in the 1960s, without consent, after a typhoid outbreak on Galiwin’ku, for reasons that remain unclear, reported ABC TV. 

Ross Mandi Wunungumarra from Yalu Marnggithinyaraw Indigenous Corporation says to ABC TV: ‘The community and the people are very happy to be able to work in partnership with this university.’

The blood was part of a collection of 7,000 samples being held at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.