#Repatriation

[museeeuuuum]

YALL

[specialagentartemis]

story about a heist team doing a heist of colonial museums and returning unethically stolen sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony to their original communities

but the story isn’t about them

the story is a legal thriller about the repatriation coordinator and the pro bono lawyer who get frantically called in by that community when an artifact goes missing from a museum and shows up unexpectedly at their doorstep and now they are in a shit ton of (potentially international) legal trouble because the heist team did not take the legal ramifications into account, and no one else believes them that they didn’t steal it, and The Law is saying they are legally obligated to return it to the museum and are also probably going to go to prison for this, and activists are protesting, and it’s rocking the repatriation world, and it’s turning into a huge Thing

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

500-year-old Snake Figure from Peru (Incan Empire), c. 1450-1532 CE: this fiber craft snake was made from cotton and camelid hair, and it has a total length of 86.4cm (about 34in)

This piece was crafted by shaping a cotton core into the basic form of a snake and then wrapping it in structural cords. Colorful threads were then used to create the surface pattern, producing a zig-zag design that covers most of the snake's body. Some of its facial features were also decorated with embroidery.

A double-braided rope is attached to the distal end of the snake's body, near the tip of its tail, and another rope is attached along the ventral side, where it forms a small loop just behind the snake's lower jaw. Similar features have been found in other serpentine figures from the same region/time period, suggesting that these objects may have been designed for a common purpose.

Very little is known about the original function and significance of these artifacts; they may have been created as decorative elements, costume elements, ceremonial props, toys, gifts, grave goods, or simply as pieces of artwork.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art argues that this figure might have been used as a prop during a particular Andean tradition:

In a ritual combat known as ayllar, snakes made of wool were used as projectiles. This effigy snake may have been worn around the neck—a powerful personal adornment of the paramount Inca and his allies—until it was needed as a weapon. The wearer would then grab the cord, swing the snake, and hurl it in the direction of the opponent. The heavy head would propel the figure forward. The simultaneous release of many would produce a scenario of “flying snakes” thrown at enemies.

The same custom is described in an account from a Spanish chronicler named Cristóbal de Albornoz, who referred to the tradition as "the game of the ayllus and the Amaru" ("El juego de los ayllus y el Amaru").

The image below depicts a very similar artifact from the same region/time period.

Why Indigenous Artifacts Should be Returned to Indigenous Communities.

Sources & More Info:

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Snake Ornament

Serpent Symbology: Representations of Snakes in Art

Journal de la Société des Américanistes: El Juego de los ayllus y el Amaru

Yale University Art Gallery: Votive Fiber Sculpture of an Anaconda

[24foxstories]

hey, don't cry. two museums in the Netherlands are returning a total of 119 items to Nigerian museums where they rightfully belong, okay?

[sca-nerd]

The call is coming from inside the house...

[allweknewisdead]

Dahomey (2024) - Mati Diop

What was looted more than a century ago was our soul, our ability to be proud.

[arthistoryanimalia]

Honored to have spent time with these two historical Tlingit clan hats currently still at the Penn Museum. They are in the process of being repatriated to the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.

1. Ganook Hat (NA6864): Ganook (The Petrel), early 18th c. (one of the oldest known surviving Tlingit hats!)

Maple wood, paint, Opercula shell, fur, hair, spruce root; L 28 x W 27 x H 37 cm

2. Noble Killer Hat (NA11741): Killer Whale (Orca), 19th c? (collected 1926)

Spruce wood, paint, abalone shell, human hair; L 36 x W 34 x H 27.5 cm

[anexperimentallife]

EDIT: CRISIS AVERTED, THANK YOU!

Interracial US family w/ disabled autistic dad and toddler needs to get to the US for medical treatment

(New post because the old one was getting LONG with the updates. Details are under the "read more" to save your dash, with updates in the notes.)

TL;DR: If I'm going to live long enough to watch our daughter grow up, we need to get back to the US and get set up in a disability-friendly place where I can use my medical benefits.

Although I was already disabled (autism, adhd, and spine, joint, and head injuries), my health was stable--until four bouts of COVID left me immunocompromised, and utterly destroyed my health (including damage to my heart, blood clots that damaged one eye, neurological and joint issues, etc.), and although we started off fine, we've been hammered with one crisis after another, both medical and financial, that no one could have predicted.

Until we have enough to get back to the US, a chunk of whatever comes in has to go towards medical care that can't be put off, so the sooner we can reach critical mass on that, the better.

If you can help, or reblog, or share the links on other platforms, we'd be grateful!

The "Donate to Little or None" Paypal donation link takes the lowest fees, I think. (Kept the same link from when we were fighting to get our daughter's birth certificate fixed so we could get her citizenship affirmed.)

Then there's Ko-Fi:

And my little sister started a GoFundMe for us!

EDIT: The donation links above still work, but I removed the GoFundMe link.

IF YOU WANT ALL THE DETAILS SEE THE "READ MORE."

(There's more in my "rob gets medical" tag if you want a blow by blow account of how we got to this point over the past few years, but this is the gist.)

HOW IT STARTED:

I moved to the Philippines six years ago, after the deaths of my adult sons, in part to make my disability payments stretch further. Shortly afterwards, I was joined by my now-wife @thesurestthing (also from the US) for what was supposed to be a visit, but which turned into a permanent arrangement.

After I got a contract to license an old story for a mobile game (which tripled our income*), we found out we were having a baby, which was fine, because despite my disabilities (autism, adhd, two spine injuries, traumatic brain injury, a herniated esophagus, joint issues, etc.), my health was stable, and thanks to the contract, we were fine financially as well.

HOW IT STARTED GOING DOWNHILL:

Zoey's pregnancy was complicated, requiring two hospitalizations, and our daughter's birth was complicated, too--requiring a C-Section--which tripled our hospital bill. A few weeks after our daughter was born, the aforementioned contract was canceled without warning. THEN, when we tried to register our daughter's birth with the US embassy, we discovered an error on her birth certificate that left her stateless, and which took nearly two years, all our savings, and a fundraiser (thank you, generous people!) to resolve. Combined with medical expenses, that left us in a lot of debt.

A brief summary of went else wrong (leaving a lot out for brevity's sake):

I got COVID three four times during all this, became immunocompromised, and developed a slew of other medical issues (heart damage, eye damage and temporary facial paralysis from blood clots, persistent infections, a worsening of my joint issues, neurological issues, etc.) as a result of Long Covid.

I've had to be hospitalized a couple of times, undergo surgery, and was on an oxygen machine twice--once for an entire month, while I was bedridden. As of 24 January, 2024, I'm still recovering from my fourth bout of covid, which started at the beginning of October 2023.

There's a lot more, but you get the idea. COVID has completely wrecked my health, including tearing up my immune system.

And yes, I'm as fully vaxxed against COVID as one can be in the Philippines, with all available boosters, but again--I'm immunocompromised, plus they don't have the vax for the newest variant here yet. Zoey is vaxxed, also, and as a result, her bout with covid was extremely mild. El isn't vaxxed yet because they won't give the covid vaccine to kids under five here, but she's been able to share Zoey's antibodies from breast-feeding--which is apparently a thing.

The only way we can see for me to stay alive long enough to watch Eleanor grow up is to get back to where I can use my Medicare and VA benefits**.

WHY SO MUCH MONEY?

First, while we're still here, we need to pay for whatever medical care can't be put off. Plus, since I'm now immunocompromised, we have to get LOTS of vaccinations before we have to spend 24 hours or so in crowded planes and airports.

Second, we're going to be arriving with only what we can carry with us on the plane, and we'll need to get into a place near a VA hospital that I can easily get around in while I'm recovering from surgeries and getting various treatments. We'll need to pick up some secondhand household goods, and some kind of used transportation (because, you know, it's the US, where you kind of need a vehicle to get around).

We'll also need enough on top of my and El's disability payments to get by for a couple of months while Zoey looks for work. And all this is while we're still paying off the debt from the stuff I mentioned above.

So we're figuring that unless we catch some very lucky breaks, it'll probably cost between 20K and 36K altogether.

(We can't simply stay with friends when we get back, because literally every single close friend we have in the US with extra room and who lives close to a VA hospital has cats--to which I have a severe anaphylactic reaction. As in my entire respiratory system shuts down, and I have to be rushed to the ER to keep from dying; this has happened more than once. The only way I can be around cats is if I'm on immunosuppressants, and my immune system is ALREADY compromised, so I CAN'T do that.)

So again, if you can kick in, or reblog, or post our crowdfunding links (or the link to this post) on whatever other platforms you use, we'd appreciate it.

(*When I told social security about it, they said I could keep getting disability, too, because licensing IP rights didn't count as work income, and since it was a Moldavian company, it also fell under a special tax clause for getting paid by a foreign company while living overseas, so no taxes on it, either. )

(**VA benefits--I was a cold warrior in 1980s Germany. It was less than forty years after WWII, there was a lot of sabre-rattling--some of it nuclear--and we were there as a deterrent to prevent in Germany the kind of thing that's happening in Ukraine right now. Disclaimer because I'm tired of people accusing me of "invading" folks in the early 1980s when I was a dumb, heavily propagandized pre-Internet kid fixing generators in Europe. I wouldn't join today even if I could.)

[blackstarlineage]

Sara Baartman (1789–1815), also known as Saartjie Baartman, was a Khoisan woman from South Africa who became a symbol of exploitation and racial discrimination. Born in the Eastern Cape, she was a member of the Khoikhoi people. Baartman was taken to Europe under false pretences in 1810, lured by promises of wealth and a better life. Instead, she became the subject of public exhibition due to her physical features, particularly her large hips and buttocks, which European audiences regarded with a mix of fascination and derision.

In England and later France, she was displayed as part of "freak shows" and referred to as the "Hottentot Venus," a derogatory term that reflected the racist and colonial attitudes of the time. Her body was objectified and subjected to pseudoscientific scrutiny, particularly by French naturalists, who used her as a case study to perpetuate racist theories of human inferiority.

Sara Baartman died in Paris on December 29, 1815, at the age of 26, likely from pneumonia, smallpox, or syphilis. After her death, her body was dissected, and her remains, including her skeleton and preserved genitals, were displayed in French museums for over a century.

In 2002, following years of advocacy and recognition of the inhumanity she suffered, her remains were repatriated to South Africa and given a proper burial in the Eastern Cape, marking a symbolic act of restitution and respect for her legacy. Today, Sara Baartman is remembered as a tragic victim of colonial exploitation and a symbol of the struggle against racism and dehumanization.🇿🇦

[worldsokayestmagicalgirl]

Day 14 : Modern

Green, still green, but a deeper color. Still a bamboo motif, but a modern rendering in gold.

Shen Yuan didn’t really want to ask such an awkward question as, ‘How do you see me compared to Shen Qingqiu?’ but he felt like he didn’t need to anymore. He felt like he’d gotten some sort of answer.

“… Thank you,” he said softly. “I … I like it.”

Liu Qingge couldn’t flush any redder, but if he could, he probably would have.

This piece from chapter 8 of @mayvnwrites' Another Time, Another Place has been sitting in my WIP folder for *checks canvas information* November 16, 2022.

Yeah that checks out.

Anyways! This is the fic that single handedly changed my opinion on modern cultivation AUs. 10/10 would recommend for the softest repatriation cuddles (*n´ω`n*)💕

Prompt List by Jaimiedraws on Instagram

[museeeuuuum]

I've been working on some repatrition-esque type work over the last few months and in the next two days I'll finally be able to hand some of this stuff back

[inariedwards]

Museum news from Finland:

Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia donates its Sámi collection to the Sámi Museum Siida

The Sámi Museum Siida is the national museum with the responsibility for preserving the material and cultural heritage of Finland's Sámi people. The Sámi objects in the Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia's collections were mainly acquired between 1900 and the 1960s with the last ones added to the collections in the 1980s.

The first part of the donation, which includes the textile items of the collection, will be transferred to representatives of the Sámi museum in the collection facilities of the Museum of North Ostrobothnia on Tuesday, 16 January 2024.

– As the new collection and exhibition facilities of the Sámi Museum Siida are now completed, this seemed like a good time to donate the objects of Sámi origin back to the Sámi community, says Pasi Kovalainen, Director of Cultural heritage work at the Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia.

– The Sámi objects and their return have a profound meaning for the Sámi community. The donation is a significant addition to the oldest part of the Sámi Museum Siida's collections. We thank the Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia for this important decision, says Taina Pieski, Siida's Museum Director.

The collections of the Museum of North Ostrobothnia that include objects of Sámi origin date back to the early days of the only professionally run museum in Northern Finland. The objects were collected by Samuli Paulaharju (1875–1944), a folklorist and museum curator from Oulu. The collection was destroyed almost completely by two fires in the museum buildings in 1929 and 1940. After both fires, replacement items were collected in Lapland.

The collection of approximately 400 items now donated consists of Sámi textiles and utensils, including a goahti (traditional Sámi hut) and several sledges. The oldest items include a cheese mould from Enontekiö dating back to 1797 and rare crossbow stocks, the oldest of which dates back to 1730.

As a large part of the Sámi cultural heritage is still held by museums outside the Sámi region, the transfer of the collection is important for the Sámi community.

The Sámi material culture is both practical and beautiful in its diversity, and the museum objects contain a wealth of intangible knowledge about their manufacture and use. This knowledge is best preserved in Sápmi by the Sámi themselves. Through the study of artefacts, it is possible to revive the old craft traditions and techniques of the Sámi community, knowledge of materials and the vocabulary related to the production and use of the objects. The revitalisation processes are a form of communal and intergenerational transfer of learning and knowledge, and they contribute to the transmission of Sámi material and immaterial culture to future generations.

The transfer of Sámi collections to the Sámi Museum Siida over the past decade is a concrete demonstration of genuine cooperation between museums and the increased understanding of the importance of cultural heritage for the Sámi community.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Sculpture of a Woman with Four Children, from Mali, c.1100-1450 CE: this sculpture was created in the ancient city of Djenné-Djenno

Created during the 12th-15th centuries CE, this sculpture depicts a woman sitting cross-legged on the ground, with two children on her lap and two more clinging to her back. Scarification patterns are visible on the woman's temples, and there is a thick, undulating line running from her forehead to the nape of her neck, likely representing a serpent.

As this article explains:

Snakes on Inner Niger Delta sculptures are a common element and should be seen as a positive iconographic component. They represent control of a potentially dangerous benevolent power that must be tamed, domesticated, nourished, and satisfied so it will continue to provide protection.

This is one of the many terracotta sculptures that were produced in Djenné-Djenno, located in the Niger River Valley of Mali, in West Africa; Djenné-Djenno sits just to the south of the Medieval city of Djenné, which is still a major center of Islamic scholarship.

The ancient city of Djenné-Djenno dates back to at least 250 BCE, making it one of the oldest cities in West Africa. For centuries, it also served as one of the largest urban centers/trading hubs in the region, with a peak population of about 20,000 people. The city began to decline in the 9th century CE, when residents (and trade) began moving northward to the nearby city of Djenné, which had just recently been founded by Muslim traders. Djenné-Djenno was ultimately abandoned by the end of the 15th century.

Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), most of the artifacts from Djenné-Djenno were looted or destroyed by colonizing forces during the 19th-20th centuries. Some of those artifacts have been repatriated in recent years, and there are ongoing efforts to return more of them.

Why Western museums should return African artifacts.

Sources & More Info:

Yale University Art Gallery: Female Figure with Four Children

World History Encyclopedia: Djenné-Djenno

Tribal Art: Scrofulous Sogolon (PDF)

ArtNews: Museum of Fine Arts Boston to Return Terra-Cotta Figures from Mali in Latest Restitution Efforts

CBS: African Nations Want their Stolen History Back, and Experts Say it's Time to Speed up the Process

Fair Observer: It is Now Time for the West to Return African Art

[ancientstuff]

This is good news!

[peninsularian]

Tuff roots, 1977

[homerstroystory]

more repatriation news!

(9/13/24) A sacred cloak (c. 16th cent. CE) belonging to the Tupinambá people of Brazil was returned after more than 300 years in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark. The cloak contains more than 4,000 scarlet ibis feathers, and several other similar cloaks are still on display throughout Europe.

Tupinambá culture (modern Brazil); c. 16th century CE; 1.8m long