In the 1800s, thousands of Aboriginal Australians were the victims of a terrible trade in the name of science. Anatomists opened their graves and stole their skeletons. After massacres of Aboriginal Australians, police officers sold body parts to museums.

Today, many of these bones lie far from home.

“Our old people’s remains have been stolen from this country, and they’re global, whether they be in London, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland — even in America,” said Gudju Gudju Fourmile, an elder of the Yidniji and Gimuy Walubara people in northern Australia.

For decades Aboriginal Australians have been pressing for the return of the bones. “Our old people’s spirits won’t rest until they’re back on their own country,” said Mr. Fourmile.

In recent years, museums have tried to comply. But progress has been slow, partly because the institutions have little information about where many of the bones came from.