Navigating International Repatriation Requires a Collaborative Approach

​By: Amy Shakespeare, International Repatriation Specialist 
 
Published in Association on American Indian Affairs, Indian Affairs Journal, Volume 195, Fall/Winter 2024

In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron commissioned a report entitled The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics,(1) more commonly known as the Sarr-Savoy Report (after the authors). The report called for the unconditional return of African cultural heritage from French institutions. This followed Macron’s speech in Burkina Faso in 2017, where he promised to rebuild France and the African continent’s relationship, including the repatriation of African heritage which he referred to as being held “prisoner” by French museums.(2)

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