Jamaica Joins a Growing Number of Nations Calling on the British Museum to Repatriate Its Cultural Artifacts

A member of the Jamaican
parliament has called out the British Museum for holding onto
historically collected indigenous cultural objects,
joining growing calls
worldwide for the repatriation of heritage artifacts collected
during the colonial era.

The Caribbean nation’s culture
minister made a public call for the British Museum to repatriate
ancient cultural artifacts taken when the island was a British
colony, beginning in the 16th century until its independence in
1962. During a speech
in the Jamaican parliament on Tuesday, minister Olivia Grange
highlighted the UK museum as a holder of several objects from
Jamaica’s indigenous Taíno culture.

Two objects of particular importance are a bird–man spiritual
figure, and another of the rain god Boiyanel, which
were each found in a cave on the island nation in 1792,
according to their listed provenance.

“They are not even on display,”
Grange said, according to the Jamaica
Gleaner. “They are
priceless, they are significant to the story of Jamaica, and they
belong to the people of Jamaica.” She added that her ministry is
working with the government of Jamaica’s National Commission on
Reparations to see them returned.

Grange did not name other
institutions that are holding Taíno objects taken from the island
during early archaeological digs. Museums like the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and El
Museo del Barrio in New York, as well as the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of African American History & Culture, also have Taíno
artifacts in their collections, though the objects are not all
necessarily from Jamaica, as the Taíno populations have lived
across several Caribbean islands.

A spokeswoman for the British
Museum tells artnet News that the institution has not yet received
an official request from the Jamaican government. She explains that
British Museum’s Taíno objects were acquired from the Oldman
collection in the early 20th century. William Ockleford Oldman
was a British dealer
and collector of ethnographic art.

In response to the Jamaican
minister’s statement that its historical objects are not on
display, the museum rep adds that there are examples of two Taíno
objects, a stool and a standing figure, which have been on display
in the British Museum’s Enlightenment Gallery since
2009. 

“Taíno objects in the collection
have been lent extensively to India, Japan, Spain, France,
Singapore, and the Horniman Museum in London,” the spokeswoman
says. “The Taíno ritual seat was part of the “A History of the
World Tour” which has been seen by well over a million people at
multiple venues from 2014-18.” She emphasizes that the museum
is also involved in several collaborative research projects
with island governments and museums in the Caribbean.

Jamaica’s public request comes
at a time when heat is rising over the question of whether Western
museums should keep objects acquired by force during different
historical periods. The British Museum has long been subject to
requests for the repatriation of artifacts, such as the Parthenon Marbles from
Greece. Recently, African nations, invigorated
by a radical French report
recommending France to return all such objects, have begun
requesting the return of colonial-era objects.

The post Jamaica Joins a Growing Number of Nations Calling
on the British Museum to Repatriate Its Cultural Artifacts
appeared first on artnet News.