Jamie Jungarrayi Hampton, Warlpiri Repatriation Officer at the South Australian Museum, recently had the "amazing" experience of meeting world-renowned British broadcaster and biologist Sir David Attenborough while on a trip to the UK.
“We went to his house in London and spent about an hour chatting about his trip to Central Australia in the ‘60s which, surprisingly, was the first time he’d ever been to Australia," Mr Hampton said.
“He remembers visiting Alice Springs and going out to Yuendumu clear as day and (the town) had a really big impact on him.
"His memories are amazing; he remembered every detail of the trip and the men he met. You can tell that the trip had a really big impact on him and his career."
Mr Hampton (pictured right with the Warlpiri project group) 
was in the UK as part of his involvement in the Encounters Fellowships, which is run through the National Museum of Australia.
"The program is really aimed at encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to work in the museum and cultural sector,” Mr Hampton said.
“It included trips to New Zealand and the UK, and some time in Canberra as well. There were six fellows selected, and that was a pretty tough process to get through, so I’m joining a prestigious club there."
During the meeting, Sir Attenborough donated about 20 to 30 photos from his trip to Yuendumu, which Mr Hampton has taken back to Alice Springs to share with the Warlpiri community.
“Yuendumu was a pretty popular place for researchers and anthropologists in the ‘50s and ‘60s to visit," Mr Hampton said.
"It was really great just to connect with Sir David and hear his stories. It didn’t feel real at the time, and it still doesn’t!”.
Mr Hampton presented Sir Attenborough with a t-shirt celebrating that Warlpiri Project - an initiative to repatriate and reconnect Warlpiri people with their cultural heritage that has been displaced in museums, institutions and personal collections around the world.
Since being established in 2019, the Warlpiri Project has worked with several organisations including the South Australian Museum, Newmont Mining Company and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
“It has seen us do a lot of repatriation around sacred objects and we also did a repatriation of an ancestor for the first time last year,” Mr Hampton, who has been the Warlpiri Repatriation Officer at the South Australian Museum for the past year, said.
Mr Hampton shared how significant it was for the Warlpiri community to receive Sir Attenborough's photos.
“It’s really important for the elders to see photos of their family," he said.
"They saw photos of their fathers and their uncles and are thankful for the opportunity to reconnect with those images. We will preserve those photos for future generations."
The photos, which are not currently available for the public to view, are being held with the community.
“We are happy to reassure Sir Attenborough and everyone that the community is engaging with the photos and they’re incredibly thankful and happy for the donation," Mr Hampton said.
Sir Attenborough’s donation is the second significant international collection of archival material gifted to the Warlpiri Project, the first being the Nancy Munn collection late last year (pictured left Warlpiri men with a crate of sacred objects).
