Bid to have Khoisan chief’s remains brought home

AN INVESTIGATION to get the remains of a 240-year-old Khoisan chief repatriated from Australia is under way, the National Heritage Council says.

Chief David Stuurman was one of the few known people who successfully escaped more than once from Robben Island, said council spokesman Danny Goulkan.

He said the chief was incarcerated there for his persistent fight against colonialism as early as 1808 or 1809.

Stuurman died in the General Hospital in Sydney in 1830 after travelling on a convict ship to the continent.

The National Heritage Council was meeting a team of community members, including descendants and researchers and hoped to assist them in bringing back Stuurman’s remains, as well as those of another Khoisan man, Jantjie Piet.

The council would approach other organisations, including the SA Heritage Resources Agency and the National Prosecutions Authority unit which dealt with international repatriation, to assist.

Goulkan said there were unconfirmed locations in Sydney where Stuurman and Piet could possibly be buried but DNA testing would help confirm where their remains were.

Research indicated that Stuurman and Piet, with 10 other South Africans, were on the convict ship Brampton that reached Sydney in April 1823.

On Tuesday, a meeting would be held at the South End Museum in Port Elizabeth to discuss current research around the two Khoisan men.

In April last year, the remains of Khoisan couple Klaas and Trooi Pienaar were returned to South Africa from Austria.

The South African government negotiated for four years to have the couple’s remains returned, together with other artefacts. – Sapa