Argentina: Skull of indigenous leader Polvareda returns to Qom community

M/S Attendees of ritual raising hands, La Plata
C/U Skull inside box and ritual elements
C/U Man performing ceremony
M/S Woman open box with skull inside
C/U Skull being taken out of box
M/S Attendees contemplating skull
C/U Skull
M/S Man talking
C/U Man saying prayers
C/U Ritual elements
M/S People saying prayers
M/S People gathered at table
C/U Woman signing paper
M/S People gathered at table
SOT, Cintia Chavez, Lawyer (Spanish): "After 153 years, the restitution of a warrior to the Qom community of northern Santa Fe and El Chaco, was achieved."
M/S Attendee blowing smoke
C/U Woman holding aboriginal flag
SOT, Cintia Chavez, Lawyer (Spanish): "The cacique was killed in 1866, in the north of Santa Fe, and after learning about this situation, we started the procedures so that the community could recover the remains of the cacique, so that he could cease to be a prisoner of science and could return to territory he belongs."
C/U Box containing skull
SOT, Dario Pereyra, N 'hala community representative (Spanish): "I could feel that he returned to his place, where he could walk, and could walk and put up fighting for his territory and feel the sense of freedom he will have from today onwards."
M/S Attendees at ceremony
SOT, Dario Pereyra, N 'hala community representative (Spanish): "We do not call a decapitation in vain, we call this a restitution and the visibility of a response that appears many years later at a time when we can finally take Polvareda to his place."
M/S La Plata Natural Sciences Museum
W/S La Plata Natural Sciences Museum
SCRIPT
The skull of indigenous leader Polvareda who was killed in 1866 during the 'Conquest of the Green Desert,' was returned to the aboriginal community he belonged to after a ceremony held at the Natural Sciences Museum of La Plata on Thursday.
Footage shows several members from the Qom people and N'hala community participating at a funeral ceremony at the Museum, minutes before the signing of documents that returned the remains of the tribe chief to his people.
"After 153 years, the restitution of a warrior to the Qom community of northern Santa Fe and Chaco, was achieved," said lawyer Cintia Chavez who was present at the ceremony.
"We call this a restitution and the visibility of a response that appears many years later at a time when we can finally take Polvareda to his place," added N'hala community representative, Dario Pereyra.
According to local reports, Cruz Polvareda's remains will be put to rest according to his tribe's traditions in Villa Guillermina, Santa Fe, on Friday.