French Senate Approves Return of Indigenous Remains to Guyana

Why this is here: The law allows for the return of six sets of remains and eight casts of body parts—objects that have been held in public collections since the late 19th century.

The French Senate on Monday, May 18, approved the repatriation to French Guiana of Indigenous remains held by the Museum of Natural History. These remains belong to Kalina and Arawak people who died over 130 years ago while exhibited in inhumane “human zoos” in Paris. The restitution comes from a bipartisan law proposed by Senators Catherine Morin-Desailly, Max Brisson, and Pierre Ouzoulias, and was adopted unanimously.

The Moliko Alet + Po association requested the repatriation to provide proper burials in their homeland. Currently, French law prevents the transfer of public collections, but recent legislation allowed exceptions for requests from foreign states—not for remains originating within France. This new law creates a unique exception to that rule.

These Indigenous people were recruited with false promises, displayed at the Jardin d’acclimatation in 1892, and succumbed to the harsh Parisian winter. Their bodies were later exhumed for anthropological study and remained in public collections. The timeline for the transfer remains unclear as the bill moves to the National Assembly.