Understanding human remains repatriation: practice procedures at the British Museum and the Natural History Museum

Abstract

This article considers the approaches in policy and practice procedures of the British Museum and the Natural History Museum, London, to claims for the repatriation of human remains from their collections. The complexities and contradictions within the academic human remains repatriation debate and in current legislation, policy and guidelines relating to repatriation, help us to understand the difficulties faced by museums today, when forming institutional human remains policies. Interviews with the staff in charge of repatriation, case studies and examinations of each museum's human remains policies, detailing their repatriation claims procedures, shows us the fundamental differences in each museum's interpretation of the repatriation debate. This article also considers how human remains repatriation around the world has helped shape repatriation in the UK and the consequences of this to both museums and claimant communities.

Keywords:

• repatriation
• the British Museum
• the Natural History Museum
• practice procedures
• institutional policies

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr Margaret Clegg of the Natural History Museum and Dr Daniel Antoine of the British Museum for giving up their time, to be interviewed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Faye Harris studied BA Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Reading, before undertaking a Masters Degree in Museum and Gallery Studies at Kingston University in 2012. This is her first publication.