Return and don't procrastinate

Return and don't procrastinate



Colonialism Reparation asks the repatriation of the remains and the permanent restitution of the treasures looted by former colonizers as a first step in the direction of the Reparation of the damages of the colonialism, stopping to procrastinate about a necessary step of the human evolution.

In recent months there have been some repatriations of remains. On March 23, 2019 the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport of Ethiopia Hirut Kassaw repatriated two locks of hair of Emperor Tewodros II, returned by the National Army Museum in London. From 9 to 15 April 2019 the representatives of the Yidindji and Yawuru originary peoples and of the Australian Government repatriated the remains of fifty-three ancestors, returned by the Five Continents Museum in Munich, the University of Freiburg, the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, the State Ethnographic Collections in Dresden and the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. On May 5, 2019 the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa repatriated the remains of one hundred twenty-one Māori and Moriori ancestors, returned by the Charité University Hospital in Berlin and the Vrolik Museum of the AMC University Hospital in Amsterdam. On August 9, 2019 the representatives of the Sami originary people repatriated the remains of twenty-five ancestors, returned by the National History Museum in Stockholm.

In the meantime requests for definitive restitution of the treasures have continued. On March 20, 2019 the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport of Ethiopia Hirut Kassaw requested to the British Museum in London the return of eleven tabots, replica of the Ark of the Covenant, and to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London the return of Maqdala treasure, already requested since 2007. On March 28, 2019 the Minister of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile Consuelo Valdés requested and obtained from the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo the repatriation of the remains and the return of the treasures collected by Thor Heyerdahl during his expeditions to Rapa Nui. On August 6, 2019 the King of the Nukhoen originary people Justice //Garoëb requested to Germany the return of the treasures looted during the colonial period. On August 20, 2019 the Chairman of the Museum and Heritage Cooperation between France and Benin Committee Nouréini Tidjani-Serpos requested the restitution without delay of the twenty-six works promised by the French President on November 23, 2018.

Unfortunately the main former colonizers procrastinate trying to obstruct the definitive restitution of the treasures. In the United Kingdom the Victoria and Albert Museum in London proposed a long-term loan, immediately rejected by Ethiopia, while the British Museum in London categorically refused the definitive restitutions, despite the resignation of one of its administrators. In France, while the return "without delay" to Benin of the twenty-six works promised by the French President on November 23, 2018 is still awaited, the Minister of Culture Franck Riester proposed more cooperation and less restitution. In Germany the Association of German Museums presented the revision of the ambiguous code of conduct for museum handling of the treasures looted during the colonial period.

Colonialism Reparation asks the repatriation of the remains and the permanent restitution of the treasures looted by former colonizers (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, etc.) as a first step in the direction of the Reparation of the damages of the colonialism, stopping to procrastinate about a necessary step of the human evolution.

© Scoop Media