Give the people back

Give it up France.

You and other colonising countries should give all of the stolen indigenous items and people back to where they came from.

Having museums and universities holding these artifacts and people is obscene. The arguments regarding the benefits of holding such items in the colonising country don't hold water. Research the items in the countires of origin. Send the mummies back - why should they be in france instead of the land of their birth.

Have some damn decency - you colonised the country, plundered the culture, stole anything valuable, wasted the resources and now struggle to give back the stolen people.

"France is set to approve a bill to return to New Zealand more than a dozen mummified Maori heads in what supporters say is a belated move to right the wrongs of European colonialism.

"The Maori heads that are still dispersed in European and US museums have a history that reminds us of the worst hours of colonialism," read the summary of the draft bill, which is due to be debated by the Senate in Paris.

Last year, France's Culture Ministry blocked the return of a Maori chief's head from a museum in Rouen to Te Papa, saying the move could mean that France would have to return mummies to Egypt. The ministry has said, however, that it favours the current proposal."

UPDATE

"The Upper House Senate has voted unanimously in favour of a bill calling for France's museums to return all Maori heads still in their possession to New Zealand.

The bill now heads to the National Assembly for debate."

As stated above

"France's culture ministry last year blocked a museum in northwestern Rouen from returning a Maori chief's head to New Zealand's national Te Papa Tongarewa museum, fearing the move could force Paris to return mummies to Egypt.

But the newly appointed Culture Minister, Frederic Mitterrand, has come out in favour of the bill drawn up by a cross-party group of senators, telling them: "The Government fully shares their ethical concerns."

"In what began as a ritual, a sign of respect from tribe and family towards the dead, these mummified heads led to a particularly barbaric trade, fuelled by the sinister curiosity of travellers and European collectors," he said."

A positive for the French who have taken a beating here recently :)