AS FURLS of smoke drift through Kamilaroi man Len Waters' hands, it's silent but for the distant call of birds.
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For the first time in more than two decades, artefacts, including ceremonially plates and women's business once held in the hands of Aboriginal ancestors have come home.
It's been a long five months of hard work behind the scenes to take more than 80 culturally significant items kept safe in Armidale for 25 years back to the Tamworth and Barraba communities who forged them.
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The items were saved from a private collector with plans to sell relics of local Aboriginal culture that would have been lost forever, NSW Aboriginal Lands Council northern regional councillor Charles Lynch said.
"A lot of this collection would have gone overseas," he said.
"There's certain pieces in this collection that can't be displayed, it's very much ceremonial and women's business and it's important they are handled within protocols.
"It comes back to cultural practices, ties to kinship and the way we held ceremonies and participated in them and revitalising - it's never been lost. Our culture has never been lost, our stories have never been lost it's the practicing time that's gone missing."
The artefacts were saved from private sale by the NSW Aboriginal Lands Council, and have been kept, among others, at Armidale's Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place.
The repatriation is one of the first in the collection, with pieces from all across the state to be divested back to country in the future.
The "ancestral magic" wasn't lost on Gamilaroi woman Amber Vernon, who at 23-years-old is Tamworth Local Aboriginal Land Council's youngest deputy chair.
"It's really huge that we even have these artefacts in existence, unfortunately due to time and historical circumstances a lot of things have been lost culturally," she said.
"As sad and as much as we mourn the loss of those things we cherish what we have found and what can be kept and looked after for future generations.
"When you see something that's that old or important in a museum I feel like you never really grasp how significant something is until it's held, until it's felt."
The artefacts will now be part of a community-wide mob discussion about what can and cannot be displayed, what items could be used for educational purposes into the future and which of those culturally significant items will be returned to the Barraba Common.
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