Kpando in Ghana
The Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin houses four objects from Kpando in present-day Ghana, to which human remains are attached.
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) will conclude an agreement with the relevant authorities in Ghana regarding the repatriation of these objects.
The objects from Ghana consist of two drums and two horns. All four contain human remains, specifically skulls and lower jaws.
They were appropriated in the context of the violent expansion of German colonial rule in the Volta Region.
Aboriginal people in Australia
The SPK will also initiate discussions with the relevant authorities regarding three objects from Australia of particular spiritual significance, seeking a solution.
The discussions with Australia concern three objects belonging to the Eastern Maar people in Southwest Victoria, which are also housed in the Ethnological Museum and were acquired in a colonial context.
These three objects are considered “sacred items” by the Eastern Maar and are of particular importance.
A concrete solution is to be developed for them, whether it be their return or an alternative solution in accordance with shared guidelines.
While it cannot be definitively established that the appropriation of the objects took place in a legally or ethically unacceptable manner, and no specific acts of violence have been documented, there was at least an indirect context of injustice due to prior acts of violence against the Indigenous Australians of the region: numerous massacres and acts of persecution occurred between 1833 and the 1860s.
