Repatriation developments in the UK

Requests for the return of ancestral remains have been heard from indigenous communities across the globe. In the United States, the National Museum of the American Indian Act (1989) and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) have legislated for repatriation for over a decade. In Australia, indigenous communities and individuals have campaigned for the return of ancestral remains for over 30 years, although objection to the collecting of remains is evident throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and various examples exist of early requests for the return of remains. In the UK, some museums and holding institutions have repatriated remains to Australia, some have narrow criteria for allowing the return of remains, some have policies which oppose repatriation, and others have no written policies at all. Recent developments in the UK have seen repatriation move into the political sphere, a progression which mirrors that which occurred in Australia and the United States 10-15 years ago and which, it could be argued, is what forced the scientific and museum community in those countries to accept that they no longer had sole rights to decide what should happen to the indigenous human remains in their collections