Ms Lynn Scarff:

The article in the Financial Timeswas very interesting. I read it myself at the weekend. In his statement of nearly two weeks ago, President Macron was speaking in particular about French collections in relation to Africa and their return. There is a great deal of conversation right now among museums. We recently had a conference in Belfast with colleagues in the Museums Association and there was conversation on this topic there. Repatriation is a constant conversation that is happening within museums and the cultural sector. It is a very current conversation. The National Museum of Ireland’s ethnographical collection is comprised of 11,000 objects which were mainly acquired between 1760 and 1914. For the most part, the collection reflects Irish exploration of the world around that time. What is interesting for the museum is that we are coming to the final stages of a publication on that collection. What is particularly interesting around the question of repatriation is the extent to which the wider community is aware of what a museum holds in its collection, in particular in relation to ethnographic material. As such, publications like this and the digitisation of the collections is crucial. While this is not a collection or area the National Museum currently collects in, it is a collection from our past and it is our responsibility to conserve and look after it.

The repatriation of those objects is an ongoing debate and discussion, and the return of that property and the response to that is usually dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Usually, that is from one cultural sector, generally museum to museum. For example, the National Museum permanently repatriated two toi moko tattooed Maori heads to New Zealand in 1990 and entered into conversations on the collection that remained here. I emphasise that there is a criticality in ensuring that information is out there and is accessible and that we are open to conversations and ongoing discussion around it. We also loan many items from the collection on a permanent or temporary basis. A loan of three artefacts is currently at the Royal Academy in London as part of an Oceania exhibition. We have loaned a whaler's hat and a bentwood visor to the Anchorage Museum and we have made another loan to the Vancouver Art Gallery. It is something we are very engaged in and it is an important conversation to have. The National Museum of Ireland has a role to play in that conversation.

On the way here, I met Ms Maeve Sikora, Keeper of Irish Antiquities, whose office is beside an exhibition we are holding currently on Roger Casement. The collection is the collection he assembled during his travels, in particular in Peru and around South America. It has been a wonderful opportunity for us to tell the story of this individual and his work to tell of the plight of people at that time. One has to think about the nuances of this conversation and how these objects, depending on where they are, can offer opportunities for cultural dialogue and new research projects. On the Senator's point, it is crucial that communication happens and is open. As such, publication and more resources to digitise those collections, care for them and get that message out are important.