How did they know they were indigenous bones? Was dead person's consent asked for to check if dead person wanted to be identified as ancestor of somebody?

I mean i understand caring for our dead, but anytime it's a matter of consent, its always for the living descendants, HIPPA protects medical records for 50 years, but they're generally protected so the living descendents don't feel impact for anything that maybe damaging.

And talking about laws I know it's a tangent, but the reason copyright exist after death is so that revenue can be enjoyed by living descendents. Laws are not necessarily sensible a lot of times.

[–] Geobloke@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

They could probably tell fairly quickly by the age of the ground they were found in. Colonisation occurred less than 200 years ago making it fairly trivial to understand if they were older. The indigenous had also maintained stories describing the area as a burial ground.

For the living indigenous its a tangible link to their pre colonisation culture, thus making it incredibly important to them. After they've had so much of their land, language, beliefs, foods and culture has been taken away from them, I'm sure you can understand why preserving the links that they still have is important to them