Annex
STANDING CONFERENCE ON PORTABLE ANTIQUITIES—MEMBERS
AND OBSERVERS
MEMBER ORGANISATIONS
Association of Local Government Archaeological
Officers
British Archaeological Association
British Museum
Council for British Archaeology
Council for Scottish Archaeology
Finds Research Group
Institute of Field Archaeologists
Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research,
University of Cambridge
Museums Association
National Monuments Record for England (English
Heritage—formerly RCHME)
National Museums and Galleries of Wales
National Museums of Scotland
National Trust
National Trust for Scotland
Portable Antiquities Scheme
Prehistoric Society
Rescue—The British Archaeological Trust
Resource—The Council for Museums Archives
and Sites
Roman Finds Group
Royal Archaeological Institute
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Wales
Scottish Museums Council
Society of Antiquaries of London
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Society for Medieval Archaeology
Society of Museum Archaeologists
Society for Nautical Archaeology
Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology
Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Standing Conference of Archaeological Unit Managers
Surrey Archaeological Society
Ulster Museum
United Kingdom Institute for Conservation
University College London
Wessex Archaeology
OBSERVERS
Department of Culture Media and Sport
Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments
English Heritage
Environment and Heritage Service for Northern
Ireland
Historic Scotland
National Council for Metal Detecting
Secretariat: provided by Council for British
Archaeology
Chairman: Dr Peter Addyman CBE
September 2003
Aloha nõ kãkou. Our interest in
the matter of human skeletal remains held in collections of publicly
funded museums and galleries in the United Kingdom stems primarily
from our responsibility for the care and protection of ancestral
Hawaiian remains and funerary possessions, including the approximately
150 Hawaiian skulls held in the collections of the Natural History
Museum in London, England. Attached is a listing of our repatriation
efforts, including the institutions involved, the year, number
of ancestral remains, and origins from which the remains were
removed from and henceforth returned to. We are experienced in
repatriation and reburial and are trained in traditional Hawaiian
cultural protocol. Our organization has been engaged in a concerted
effort to return our ancestors remains home from the Natural History
Museum for over 14 years. This testimony supplements our testimony
submitted in 2001 to the Working Group on Human Remains entitled,
A Matter of Honor and Duty: Bringing Our Ancestors Home for
Reburial Natural History Museum, London, England, a copy of
which is also attached.
1. Publicly funded museums and galleries
in the United Kingdom must be required to document its collections
of human remains from jurisdictions outside of the UK. In addition,
such institutions must provide to living descendants responsible
for the care and protection of human remains held in these museum
and gallery collections access to all such information. Furthermore,
such institutions must provide access to the institution's archival
records to assist with the identification of the origins of the
ancestral remains for purposes of accurate repatriation and recognition
of family connections. Museums and galleries must required (or,
at a minimum, encouraged) to comply with requests of indigenous
peoples for information and should not engage in practices intended
evade such requests or to withhold information regarding its collections
of human remains and their funerary possessions.
2. Publicly funded museums and galleries
in the United Kingdom must allow living descendants responsible
for the care and protection of the human remains held in its collections
to be able to visit with their ancestors, including the conduct
of culturally appropriate ceremonies prior to actually returning
the remains. Our organization has tried on three occasions to
conduct cultural protocols with the iwi ku¥puna (ancestral
bones) of Hawaiians held at the Natural History Museum in London
and each time the museum refused our request, despite our travelling
half way around the world to visit with the ancestors. The ability
to conduct these ceremonies is part of our cultural responsibility
to our ancestors to provide them with care and protection. The
right to do this is inherent in our relationship with our ancestors
and it is inappropriate for this right to be denied. The Natural
History Museum, and all other publicly funded museums and galleries
in the United Kingdom should be encouraged to halt the practice
of prohibiting the conduct of ceremonies. Rather, the staff should
be urged to learn the cultural practices of the peoples whose
human remains they hold in order to more clearly understand, as
with Hawaiians, that the practice of withholding ancestral remains
from living descendants is considered hewa (wrong) and an act
of desecration. We Hawaiians have never withheld the remains of
any British citizens and we would appreciate the same courtesy
be extended to us in return.
3. The Committee on Culture Media and Sport
and the Working Group on Human Remains must recommend and support
appropriate amendments to existing legislation in order to require,
allow and provide for the repatriation of all human remains from
foreign jurisdictions including Hawaii in which bona fide claimants
present requests for the return of identifiable ancestral remains.
These amendments could follow procedures similar to those applicable
in the United States under the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Those procedures includes an inventory
of human remains and funerary possessions, a request by a bona
fide claimant with experience in repatriation, and a process by
which to transfer physical possession of the ancestral remains
and funerary possessions to the indigenous claimant.
4. The Committee on Culture Media and Sport
and the Working Group on Human Remains must recommend that all
publicly funded museums and galleries in the United Kingdom apply
the principle of informed consent of living descendants responsible
for the care and protection of ancestral human remains to issues
relating to human remains in its collections including: (a) the
display of human remains, (b) information relating to human remains,
(c) access to human remains, (d) the storage of human remains,
and (e) the repatriation of human remains for final disposition.
In addition, informed consent must be acquired from those living
descendants in order for institutions to conduct any type of research
on human remains whose cultural affiliation is known due to the
lack of familial connection between the museum and gallery staff
and the ancestral remains.
5. The issue of the repatriation of human
remains cannot be resolved unless the requests of living descendants
are recognized as legitimate and respected. The fact that human
remains may be of scientific value, either now or in the future,
does not convey on the scientific community rights pre-eminent
over the rights of living family. The Committee on Culture Media
and Sport and the Working Group on Human Remains must acknowledge
the right of legitimate claimants to determine the disposition
of human remains. This would be a strong first step towards a
resolution of these important issues and enable equitable discussion.
We note that such measures would not necessarily preclude scientific
research.
6. It is suggested that the Working Group
on Human Remains develop a Statement of Principles that is based
on the recognition of the right of indigenous groups to determine
the future of their ancestors' remains. Such rights should be
unhindered by selective criteria other than criteria narrowly
drawn and developed with the participation of indigenous people
regarding establishment of the legitimacy of the request. There
is a significant body of policy, legislation and experience, both
within and outside the United States, which can be used by the
Working Group in developing such a Statement of Principles. The
Committee on Culture Media and Sport should support this effort.
7. In light of the history of human remains
collecting and the ongoing legitimate concerns of indigenous groups,
the Committee on Culture Media and Sport and the Working Group
on Human Remains should acknowledge that the descendants of human
remains have the pre-eminent right to determine the future of
these remains.
2 September 2003
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