Dávvirat Duiskkas at UNESCO in Paris

Saernieprieve 26 –suehpeden/ruffien 2026

Wednesday May 20^th, a small delegation from Dávvirat Duiskkas (DD) and Saemien Sijte South Sámi Museum had the privilege of visiting the UNESCO Headquarters in the heart of Paris. The occasion was the ICPRCP’s 25th Session Forum of Discussions on Return and Restitution. ICPRCP is short (long, really) for Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation and is the primary UNESCO body for addressing these issues. Saemien Sijte had been asked to speak about the significance of the return of the Freavnantjahken gievrie (the drum from Freavna mountain) from Meininger Museen in November 2023, but also to reflect on the importance of Dávvirat Duiskkas and the mapping of Sámi collections in Germany. The delegation consisted of Birgitta Fossum, Lisa Dunfjeld-Aagård and Cathrine Baglo. Birgitta is the director at Saemien Sijte and DD’s steering group leader, Lisa is a curator at the same museum and one of the three people who brought the drum by car the 1800 km from Meiningen to Snåsa, and Cathrine is DD’s project leader.

Birgitta Fossum and Lisa Dunfjeld-Aagård in front of (the back side) of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, May 2026. The Y-shaped complex was inaugurated in 1958. Photo: Baglo.

The day started with a short meeting with the permanent delegation of Norway to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris and the delegation from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality. The delegation from the ministry took part in two sessions or day-long meetings, on illicit trafficking and restitution of cultural property.[i] They told us a little about the meeting that waited us and the forum of discussions on return and restitution which take place every two years, while we told them about our work and the processes leading up to the return of Freavnantjahken gievrie. We also re-acquainted Alexis Mocio-Mathieu, the ICPRCP program specialist who participated in DD’s Recap Conference in Alta earlier this year.

Before the ICRPC meeting on return and restitution. From the left; Ingrid Mollestad, Norwegian ambassador to OECD and UNESCO, Birgitta Fossum, Saemien Sijte/ Davvirat Duiskkas and Morten Stender, the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality. Photo: C. Baglo.

The focus on this year’s meeting on return and restitution was on best practices – successful cases, best practices – innovative projects, provenance research, and indigenous peoples where Birgitta was one the presenters. The first session dealt with cases from Kuwait, Mongolia, Peru, and South-Africa. Most relevant for DD was the return of sacred artefacts from Museum Neuchâtel in Switzerland to South Africa and the family of origin. The artifacts, a collection of divining bones, a bull’s foot bone amulet, and a ceremonial walking staff, were originally acquired by Swiss missionary Henri-Alexandre Junod in the 1880’s, who purchased them from the regent of the Nkuna chiefdom’s Shilubana royal family during his time in South Africa.[ii]

Getting ready for the ICPRCP’s 25th meeting on return and restitution. Birgitta Fossum and Lisa Dunfjeld-Aagård. Photo: C. Baglo.

In the session on innovative projects the platform “Open Restitution Africa” was particularly interesting.[iii] The platform conveys information on 25 African restitution cases spanning from the 1800s to the present. Each case is presented on the template: 1) About this case 2) Place of origin 3) Significance 4) Current Location 5) Circumstances of removal 6) Impact of loss 7) Chronology of restitution efforts 8) Current status 9) About the research. For those of us who are preparing restitution claims, such abstractions are food for thought. The aim of the platform is also exemplary; to make African restitution efforts and strategies visible and accessible, to facilitate knowledge sharing across the continent, aggregate and generate regional and local restitution insights, and support evidence-based decision making.

Our Norwegian colleagues at the meeting. From the left Ida Ekrheim, Mia Benedicte Sund Aasli and Morten Stender. Photo: C. Baglo.

In the session on provenance research, the presentations of Digital Benin and the Zambian Swedish collaboration project “Shared Histories. Digital Repositories” were particularly interesting. Digital Benin we had heard about before from our parters in Germany, but we never really had the time to check it out. In Paris we learned that it is an impressive digital site that brings together objects, historical photographs and documentation material from collections worldwide to provide an overview of the royal artefacts from Benin Kingdom looted in the late nineteenth century.[iv] If my notes are correct 5304 artifacts, 139 institutions, 21 countries, 5081 archival documents, 109 oral history videos, and 39 contributors are brought together at present. The Cultural History Museum in Oslo, for example, has 23 artifacts. None are restituted. The Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg has 53 objects. None are restituted. Rautenstrauch-Joest- Museum in Cologne has 1 object. 92 are restituted. The Ethnological Museum Berlin has 11 objects. 509 are restituted while Museum am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK) in Hamburg has no objects. 179 are restituted.[v]

«The limits of provenance. For sacred objects and artefacts, the archive often tells us how the object moved – not what world was broken when it moved”. Ms. Samba Yonga from the Woman History Museum of Zambia on community centered approaches to provenance research and the Zambian Swedish project “Shared Histories. Digital Repositories”. Photo: C. Baglo.

The community-based provenance research project “Shared Histories. Digital Repositories” (2020-2022) took place between the Women History Museum of Zambia and the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden.[vi] One of the world culture museums, the ethnographic museum in Stockholm, holds over 650 historical Zambian artifacts and hundreds of photographs that were collected by explorers, missionaries, and anthropologists during the colonial area. Funded by the Swedish Institute, the project has carried out workshops in villages in Southern Zambia. The objective has been to identify objects (artifacts and pictures) that lacked both context and interpretation and enrich them with information and meta data. Yonga, however, conceptualized and theorized the process. She spoke of epistemic loss and epistemic repair and how whole knowledge systems were broken when artifacts were removed from their cultural context. “Restitution returns the object. Epistemic repair restores the world of knowledge around the object”, Yonga emphasized.

«2021-2026: Five mapping trips, six workshops, recap conference. 2026-2028: Deepening our knowledge on chosen objects”. Birgitta Fossum summarizes the work of Dávvirat Duiskkas at ICPRCP’s Paris meeting. Photo: C. Baglo.

The session on Indigenous peoples consisted of voices from Māori in New Zealand, Tupi in Brazil, Kágaba or Kogi in Colombia, Haida in British Colombia, and Sámi in Norway. They spoke about the return of taonga (treasures) to the Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti community on New Zealand’s North Island,[vii] the return of a sacred feathered cape from the 17^th century (the Tupinambá mantle) from the National Museum in Denmark to Brazil, [viii] the return of sacred pre-Columbian masks from among others the Ethnological Museum in Berlin to communities in northern Colombia,[ix] restitution processes among the Haidi and other First Nations in British Columbia including the publications «From Stealing to Healing: Repatriation and B.C. First Nations» and «Repatriation Handbook”, [x] while Birgitta spoke of the significance of the return of Freavnantjahken gievrie to the South Sámi community and provided some reflections on the project Dávvirat Duiskkas.

“Forum of discussions on return and restitution. Indigenous Peoples”. From ICPRCP’s Twenty-Fifth Session. Photo: C. Baglo.

The last session focused on the role of UN human rights mechanisms in promoting cultural rights through the return of cultural property to Indigenous Peoples. Hernan Vales, Chief of the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section, and Valts Ernštreits, Vice-Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, spoke about the importance of UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and EMRIP (Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) but also other conventions. Most indigenous communities lack the leverage to pursue return alone, Ernštreits underscored and continued: “Member states must take the lead and with FPIC [free, prior and informed consent] at every step”. Encouraging words for those who are used to working in headwind.

Finishing the day’s UNESCO session. From the left; Not known, Glicéria Tupinambá, Luis Niuvita, Birgitta Fossum, Victor Walker, Alexis Mocio-Mathieu and Valts Ernštreits. Photo: C. Baglo.

All in all, participance in ICPRCP’s discussions on return and restitution was both educational, useful and inspiring. Many thanks for the opportunity – and for letting us view the Eiffel Tower from UNESCO’s cafeteria!

Happy summer to all!

Jïjnjh heelsegh

Cathrine Baglo