The repatriation and reburial of Sarah Baartman increased public awareness of past atrocities on the indigenous peoples of South Africa. Many people are not aware that museums house unethically collected human remains of many indigenous peoples collected under questionable circumstances. The remains of these people await repatriation and although repatriation is a museums’ objective, there are many obstacles.
Within the collections are the remains of women, young and old, as well as children and babies. During the 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children in South Africa, it is especially their plight, their narratives that we would like to make the centre of attention.
The exhibition will contain the empty boxes which currently house human remains within the Iziko collections as well as that of the crate which housed the coffin of Sarah Baartman.
