[CPProt.net] UK: Indigenous remains to be returned

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Indigenous remains to be returned
London
October 6, 2005 - 1:53AM

 
The British government has enacted a law allowing the British Museum and
eight other leading institutions to return human remains to indigenous
communities abroad, including Australia.

A section of the Human Tissue Act allows museums to return remains "which
are reasonably believed to be under 1,000 years in age".

Culture Minister David Lammy said the change was a "response to the claims
of indigenous peoples, particularly in Australia, for the return of
ancestral remains."

Australian Aborigines have appealed to the British and Australian
governments for more than 20 years to help them bring the remains of their
ancestors home.

Indigenous groups in North America and New Zealand have made similar
appeals.

Aboriginal groups estimate more than 8,000 sets of remains remain in museums
and institutions abroad, most taken from the country as curios and
scientific specimens in the 19th century.

Hundreds of remains have already been taken back to Australia from
countries, including the United States and Sweden.

Most British museums can already respond to such claims, but the British
Museum, the Natural History Museum and other large national facilities were
created by acts of parliament which barred them from disposing of items in
their collections.

The government also said it had also drawn up new guidelines to help museums
decide what to do with human remains in their collections.

- AP