[CPProt.net] UK museums to return Aboriginal remains

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

UK museums to return Aboriginal remains
October 17, 2005

BRITAIN: British museums have welcomed a change in law that is expected to
lead to Aboriginal remains being returned from their collections to
Australia.

Implementation of the 2004 Human Tissue Act will allow nine museums to
repatriate remains, superseding the British Museums Act of 1964 which
forbade such returns even if the museums believed the remains to be of
little scientific value.

The new law allows for the return of items considered to be less than 1,000
years old.

Aboriginal groups in Australia will now have applications for such returns
actively considered.

The Natural History Museum, which has the most extensive collection in
Britain of about 400 items - ranging from skeletons to hair clippings -
welcomed the change.

However it said claims would be balanced against the scientific value of the
items.

"In each case, the interests and wishes of the claimant and the importance
of the item to scientific research will be taken into consideration," the
Natural History Museum said in a statement.

"(The museum) believes its unique collection will continue to be of immense
value to scientific research in the future for the benefit of society."

The British Museum said it also approved of the effect of the new law.

"We have to wait to receive claims for the material," a British Museum
spokesperson said.

"The Museum welcomes the legislation because it will allow us to fully
consider those claims we do get."

Much of the collection of Aboriginal remains were taken from Australian by
scientists and explorers from the early 19th century into the 20th century.

The genesis of the law came in 2000, when British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and Australian counterpart John Howard made a joint declaration to increase
efforts to repatriate human remains to Australian Indigenous groups.

"This announcement is the right response to the claims of Indigenous
peoples, particularly in Australia, for the return of ancestral remains,"
British Culture Minister David Lammey said. - AAP

http://www.nit.com.au/