They are all controversially held on British soil after requests from citizens from their countries of origin for their return home.

Bermagui’s Rodney Kelly is in the UK to formally request the return of the Gweagal shield from the British Museum, and has hit a common roadblock put strategically in place by many encyclopedic museums.

In a letter from the museum’s deputy director, Jonathan Williams, he emphasises the global importance of the shield to world knowledge. However, to the British government the languages, religion and societies of Australia have not been given the same level of importance.

The shield is being protected yet Australian culture is being eroded.

Encyclopedic museums were created as a place to keep looted artefacts away from their place of origin – located in Western cities, the knowledge benefits Europeans at the neglect of places such as Australia.

According to Mr Kelly the shield is being damaged in its current state so the museum cannot argue it is better preserved in the UK.

In fact in 1999 it was revealed that the Parthenon marbles were irreparably damaged by the British Museum in the 1930s.

Is it glaringly obvious that history is best understood in its original historical and cultural context. And, as many artworks and artefacts were collected as spoils of war or colonisation, they are being held not just unethically, but as some lawyers would argue, illegally.

The lack of easy avenues for repatriation appears designed to protect the looter and not the victims of crime.

In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron said one repatriation would lead to an empty British Museum.

This claim seems quite dramatic and driven by paranoia.

The excuse the artefacts are of such importance only European museums can display them adequately comes across as arrogant and lacking in basic compassion.

The argument more people will see the items in London than in Sydney makes us wonder why they are not then on display in megacities such as Beijing or Mumbai?

The repatriation of artefacts and human remains is part of a healing process for trauma, and Mr Kelly’s trip to London has already lifted the spirits of the community.