Khoi chief Stuurman’s remains back from Australia

A traditional ritual was conducted to repatriate the spirit of Khoi Chief David Stuurman at a ceremony held in Sydney, Australia by a delegation led by Pemmy Majodina the MEC for Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture.

The ceremony took place on Tuesday 13 June, with the delegation comprise members of the Stuurman family meetting the progressive Aborigines Cultural Groups to share ideas on spiritual repatriation and also conduct the spiritual re- patriation through traditional rituals at the Sydney Central Railway Station.

This entailed utilising local tree branches for traditional ritual purposes, and that includes umphafa tree that was taken to Australia with the delegation as part of their baggage, and come back with it carrying the spirit.

Khoi Chief David Stuurman was a political activist who was detained at Robben Island by the British Colonial Administration in the 1800s. He was one of only a handful who ever staged a successfully escape from the island (three times).

Recaptured in 1820, Stuurman was transported to New South Wales in 1823, along with several other South Africans convicted of breaking colonial laws. Records show that he died in 1830, aged 51, at the Sydney Infirmary, in Macquarie Street.

Stuurman’s remains are said to have been exhumed from their original internment and reburied in a mass grave in a cemetery that now forms part of the Sydney Memorial Park.

During the ceremony, MEC Majodina said “the a spiritual repatriation of Chief Stuurman has been a long time coming and its imperative in preservation of history and advancing social cohesion through the sharing of our cultural indigenous beliefs and persuasions.”

Family spiritual and traditional rituals are expected to continue this week in Peddie, and Chief Stuurman is expected to be spiritually re-buried today at Sarah Baarthman Heritage Centre in Hankey.