The French and Australian Governments have committed to establishing a consultation process aimed at facilitating the return of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ human remains from French public collections. The French and Australian Governments are committed to working together on this subject in a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding.
This process aims to take into account both the rights and interests of Australia’s Indigenous communities, as well as the objectives and concerns of the international scientific community. Both countries commit to cooperating with the aim of enhancing cultural and scientific exchanges.
The French and Australian Governments will respect the sensitivities and values of the two countries and consider the requests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as well as the specific framework of the French legal system.
The Governments of the two countries will establish a joint expert committee to coordinate and determine the processes needed to identify and also to ascertain the origin of the Indigenous Australian human remains conserved in French public collections. This committee will be steered, for France, by the Ministry of Culture in liaison with the French National Museum of Natural History and, for Australia, by the Ministry for the Arts and the Advisory Committee for Indigenous Repatriation, and include experts from France and Australia.
The aim of the committee will be to propose and determine research aimed at identifying the origin of these human remains. The French Government will then examine possible solutions to enable the return of the human remains in question to their communities of origin.
Through the creation of this joint expert committee, the two Governments contribute to jointly facilitating the return of identified human remains to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of Australia, and thus take into account the unique ties between Indigenous peoples and their ancestors.
Canberra, 19 November 2014