‘They’re not property’: the people who want their ancestors back from British museums

Title: ‘They’re not property’: the people who want their ancestors back from British museums
Author: David Shariatmadari
Media Outlet: The Guardian
Publish Date: April 23, 2019

“Jonathan Mazower, a campaigner with Survival International, which has intervened on behalf of indigenous people to halt the auction of objects of spiritual significance, isn’t convinced. “I think for these items that were collected during the colonial era, you can’t imagine that people were in a genuine position to give their free consent in a way we would think adequately met the definition of the term.”

What would a humane policy look like to him? “Museums should commit themselves to the return of objects if the people who own them want them back. And where they are human remains, they should treat them as those of people who have died recently and simply honour the wishes of their descendants. It’s impossible to think that if the boot were on the other foot, and they were remains of western people who were held in foreign museums, that we’d be happy to see them either on display or just in a box or cupboard.”