Conscience Poem by Douglas Scotney

Just before or after
the american archaeologist photographer
allowed himself to be filmed
stealing bones wrapped in cloth
from a crack in a rock,
he 'stole' his helper,
asleep in his naga on a rock in Arnhem Land,
with his pipe,
and the tobacco with which he was paid, beside him.

61 years later in 2009,
the Smithsonian said an agreement said
a third of the bones are ours
but since we've actually got the lot
you can have what's yours.

They 'de-accessioned' their third as well
when a man from the Land
asked what would you do
if the Vietnamese
said something like that to you?