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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Brown

SHOCKING: London museums lag behind regional peers in returning disputed objects - What They Never Told You

Deborah Worsley with senior elder Noeleen Lalara (right) and emerging elders Maicie Lalara (black t-shirt) and Amethea Mamarika from the Australian Aboriginal Anindilyakwa Community as they celebrate the return of items held by the Manchester Museum. Worsley’s father Peter originally brought the collection to the UK.
Deborah Worsley with senior elder Noeleen Lalara (right) and emerging elders Maicie Lalara (black t-shirt) and Amethea Mamarika from the Australian Aboriginal Anindilyakwa Community as they celebrate the return of items held by the Manchester Museum. Worsley’s father Peter originally brought the collection to the UK. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

In the past two years Glasgow has become the first UK museum to repatriate objects to India. Newcastle and the Horniman in south London followed an example set by Aberdeen and Cambridge by returning looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria. Exeter handed sacred regalia to the Siksika Nation in Canada. Oxford returned the remains of 18 indigenous people to Australia.

Earlier this month Manchester completed a landmark return of 174 objects to the to the Anindilyakwa community, who live on an archipelago in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the northern coast of Australia.

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