In 2021, Museums Galeries Scotland (MGS) coordinated a national consultation with Intercultural Youth Scotland and Diffley Partnership, to establish public and expert perspectives for how Scotland’s involvement in empire, colonialism, and historic slavery can be addressed using museum collections and museum spaces.
As a result, the project Steering Group in June 2022 delivered a set of recommendations to the Scottish Government. These were accepted by the Scottish Government in January 2024.
One of the recommendations is:
- Scottish Government should demonstrate their support for restitution and repatriation of looted or unethically acquired items in Scottish collections.
The making of the Scottish Museum of Empire, Slavery, Colonialism and Migration (SMESCM) is in progress.
