Overview

International debates and advocacy around the repatriation of artefacts, human remains and cultural heritage acquired by colonial powers and held in western museums and institutions have accelerated over the past few years. Many state and private institutions in Europe and the United States have pledged or signalled their support of repatriation, yet, it is far from clear how it fits into broader and more consequential questions of restitution. Moreover, what new tactics and approaches are needed to confront the conscription of repatriation and restitution of cultural heritage by neo-nationalist policy makers in defence of their colonial heritage?

This panel will also delve into the historical question of racial reparations related to the enslavement of Africans between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the United States the promise of reparative land redistribution during and after the Civil War has remained largely unfulfilled. What are the possibilities and challenges facing racial reparation in former slaveholding societies? And how might the recent gains in cultural repatriation and restitution compromise or catalyse arguments and campaigns for racial reparation?