The museums of Britain and the rest of Europe hold significant quantities of colonised native peoples' human remains and cultural items.  Many of these, whether exhibited or stored, were taken from indigenous communities and archaeological sites without permission. 

We believe that indigenous people have the right to decide how the remains of their ancestors and items relating to their culture should be handled, stored, displayed and disposed of, irrespective of who holds them and where they are held.

Working in a spirit of mutual respect and co-operation with museums we undertake research to locate indigenous human remains and other objects of cultural patrimony.  We then seek to establish their origin and provenance and try to trace and contact the indigenous nation from whom the remains originated.  If successful, we ask them what action, if any, they wish to take in respect of the items.

When requested we will help to facilitate discussions between nations and museums aimed at achieving the repatriation of human remains and associated cultural items.  We never charge for our work.

Minik (above), was a survivor of six Inuit taken from their Greenland home to New York City in 1897.  He, his father and four other Greenland Inuit were brought to America by Arctic explorer Robert Peary. 

On 30 September 1897 Peary took them to the American Museum of Natural History to be displayed as live human exhibits.  About two weeks later all six became sick with colds and fever and in November they were admitted to the Bellevue Hospital Center with tuberculosis.  Only Minik and one other, Uissakassak, survived.

Uissakassak returned home to Greenland whilst Minik was adopted by the museum superintendent.  He was told that his father Qisuk had received a proper Inuit burial but discovered his father's skeleton on display in the museum.

Minik died in New Hampshire in 1917.  In 1993, the museum agreed to return the four Inuit skeletons to Greenland for proper burial.

As we publish new pages we'll update our Contents section to provide links

Meanwhile, for an introduction to some of the issues why not take a look at the following article (click on title): "Reversing the Flow of Traffic in the Market of Cultural Property"