Correspondent
The hundred-year-old remains of nine San and Khoekhoe people unethically removed from their graves in Sutherland will be repatriated from the University of Cape with the assistance of the national and provincial departments of Sports, Arts, and Culture.
This week the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) announced that it will collaborate with the University of Cape Town as well as its national counterpart, in
repatriating and reburying the remains of nine San and Khoekhoe people – aka the Sutherland Nine- who were removed unethically from their graves on the Kruisrivier farm near Sutherland a hundred years ago between 1925 -1927.
The remains were removed without the knowledge and consent of the families concerned and they were donated to the University of Cape Town for research purposes.
The university obtained the remains through a donation by a medical student named Carel Gert Coetzee who had exhumed the human remains from a graveyard on his family farm.
In 2017 the university came across the Sutherland Collection and, after intense research,
realised that they had obtained it unethically. Based on this, the university decided to return the remains to the Sutherland community.
However, before the remains could be returned and reburied, the families concerned requested that the university embark on a research process to study the remains to learn more about their ancestors.
After completing this task the university approached the national and provincial department of Sport, Arts and Culture as the custodians of repatriation and reburial of human remains process to assist in returning the remains to their ancestral home in Sutherland.
After this a process unfolded to ensure that the dignity of those exhumed was restored and
returned to their original burial site.
The Sutherland Nine repatriation and reburial process will take place from November 24-26. The University of Cape Town will return the remains of the Sutherland Nine to the Abrahams and Stuurman families.
Repatriation and reburial are mandates of the government aimed at ensuring such restoration is dignified and is an avenue to restorative justice. It is also a way to redress and ensure atonement by those concerned to seek forgiveness from the families of the Sutherland Nine.
As part of the redress the University of Cape Town will rename the Drennan Museum and the Drennan Lecture Theatre in the Anatomy building after the Abrahams and Stuurman families.
The Sutherland Nine Gardens of Remembrance will also be renamed the Garden of Remembrance. The purpose is to commemorate the ancestral legacy of the Sutherland Nine.
The three-day reburial programme is scheduled for November 24–26 this year.
Event Details
Day One: Wrapping Ceremony and Renaming Ceremony
Date: November 24, 2023
Time: 08:30
Location: Frances Ames Room, Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), Barnard Fuller
Building, Anzio Rd., Observatory, Cape Town, 7935 University of Cape Town.
Day Two: Journey to Sutherland
Date: November 25, 2023
Time: 09:00 Location(s): Maitland; Sutherland
Day Three: Reburial, Sutherland
Date: November 26, 2023
Time: 09:30
Location(s): VGK Church Hall; Historical Cemetery
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