The restitution debate in Great Britain has entered a new phase. On 16 September 2026, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced a review of its Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums, first published in 2005.
Following years of campaigning by APPG-Afrikan Reparations, AFFORD, AFRIMUHERE and DTA, Arts Minister Ruth Mackenzie acknowledged that legal, ethical and moral thinking around human remains has changed significantly and that national standards must reflect contemporary practice.
This development presents a powerful question for the reparations movement: If Britain is reconsidering the possession and return of ancestral remains in colonial contexts, what else must now be reconsidered?
Chair: Connie Bell (Co-Founder, Decolonising the Archives)
With:
- Molemo Moiloa (Co-Director, Andani) |
- Dan Hicks (Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, University of Oxford) |
- Iben Bø (Doctoral student, SOAS Centre for Pan-African Studies) |
- Peter Herbert OBE (Chair, Society of Black Lawyers) |
- Reddie (Project Director, Churches Together)
