Stolen rock art has been returned to cliffs at Preminghana

It's what Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT) manager Rebecca Digney's said following the return of the stolen luwamakuna (petroglyphs) to Preminghana in Tasmania's North-West.

The luwamakuna represent song-lines that have finally been placed in their rightful spot, Ms Digney said.

"There is a significant rock art gallery that stretches across the North-West from Devonport to preminghana, and can also be found in remote places in Tasmania's south-west," she said.

The decision to return the luwamakuna to the rockfaces that they had been taken from was not without controversy; members of the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation (CHAC) protested the display of the rock art at its original site.

CHAC's Rochelle Godwin said that their preferred solution would be to display the luwamakuna in a purpose built display.

"We don't think that they should be hidden," she said.

However, Ms Digney said that society has changed an no longer views Aborignal people and their culture as a curiosity.

"It's a step forward for these institutions and governments themselves to hand these sacred items back and allow them to go back into their proper place, because they just don't make sense, behind the glass cabinet in an institution; they were engraved by our ancestors to be seen in that landscape".

Ms Digney said the ALCT did not make the decision to return the luwamakuna to the beach without consulting widely.

"We've reached out to experts, and we've spoken to people across Australia and around the world who have given us the best advice as to how to ensure that these really sacred items can survive for the next 15,000 years," she said.

"One of the experts we dealt with was a structural expert who specialised in sandstone. ... The best way for [deterioration] to be avoided is for those petroglyphs to 90 per cent of the time remain subsurface, which is exactly why they have lasted the last 15,000 years."

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The Coastal sands move over time, periodically naturally burying and exposing the cliff face.

Over 300 people were involved in the ceremony at Preminghana on Friday, November 25. Guardians of Preminghana attended, as well as members of the Aboriginal community from all across Tasmania.

"The guardians of Preminghana did the smoking ceremony outside QVMAG when the luwamakuna were handed over," Ms Digney said.

"The smoking bowl was made from a tree from Preminghana, the ochre and gum leaves used in the ceremony were from that country".

Ms Digney said she felt overwhelmed when luwamakuna were placed back from where they had been taken.

"You can't help but feel the ancestors looking over you... [we were] righting a wrong that was committed against them," she said.