Is Reclaiming Cultural Heritage an Issue of Human Rights? (With Rodney Kelly)

11/07/17 • 48 min

What does cultural heritage mean, who can claim it, and what does it have to do with rights? With a significant number of artifacts on display in British museums having been removed from their original owners during periods of colonisation, this episode tackles the intersection between cultural artefacts, and larger issues of justice such as racial inequality, systemic injustice, and property rights. Gweagal activist, Rodney Kelly, joined us from Australia, to speak about his fight for the return of Gweagal spears and shields held by the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, and the British Museum.

Previous Episode

Still I Rise: How Can the Language of Human Rights Challenge Injustice?

What do #TakeAKnee, #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter have in common? In this episode, we explored ongoing debates surrounding the place of rights in redressing structural injustice. We talked about the language of rights, as used by both social movements and institutions, as well as social media and legislation. What are the best practices to advance human rights in an imperfect world? All of this and more, in today's episode.

Next Episode

Human Rights and Intervention: Do Local Contexts Matter? (With Dr Njoki Wamai)

In this episode, we talk about human rights and intervention, in the context of international institutions and their role in enforcing rights. Do local contexts matter? What are the everyday realities of countries subject to decrees by the International Criminal Court? And do rights belong to the individual or the community? Dr Njoki Wamai, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Governance and Human Rights, helps us answer these questions in this episode.