Section:GDN 1N PaGe:17 Edition Date:190808 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 7/8/2019 19:52 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 8 August 2019 The Guardian •
National^17
Jamaican minister calls for
return of ‘priceless’ objects
Mark Brown
Arts correspondent
Jamaica’s culture minister has
demanded that the British Museum
repatriate objects in its collection
taken when the island was a colony.
Olivia Grange wants the museum
to return artefacts that include a
500-year-old carved wooden fi gure
thought to represent Boiyanel, a rain
god , and a carved fi gure of a bird-man
spirit , found in a cave in 1792.
The call, made in the Jamaican
parliament last week, adds to the
debate over whether museums should
hold on to objects culturally signifi cant
to their country of origin.
The pieces were made by the Taíno,
the indigenous people of the Caribbean
encountered by 15th century western
explorers.
“They are not even on display,” said
Grange. “They are priceless, they are
signifi cant to the story of Jamaica and
they belong to the people of Jamaica.”
She said ministers were working
mental ill-health, which Booth-
Steel took to chronicling in musical
form when her mum bought her
a ukulele. Her online videos went
viral, celebrity retweets followed ,
and now she’s telling her story in a
solo fringe show, crisply directed by
Kathy Burke.
The result is a lovely showcase
for Booth-Steel’s warmth and stoical
wit. But it trades in clich e, and its
narrative ambition extends only as
far as “[sharing] some of the darkest
moments of my life”. It begins as
an account of Booth-Steel’s cancerwith the National Commission on
Reparations , a group established in
2009, “to have them returned ”.
A number of European and north
American collections have Taíno
objects, with the British Museum
obtaining its artefacts in the early
20th century from a collection built
up by the collector and dealer of
ethnographic art William Ockleford
Oldman.
A spokesperson for the museum
said it had not received any offi cial
communication from the ministry
of culture in Jamaica, adding that
Taíno objects had been on display and
extensively loaned. “Two objects, a
stool and a standing fi gure, have been
on public display in the Enlightenment
Gallery since 2009,” she said.
“Taíno objects in the collection
have been lent extensively to India,
Japan, Spain, France, Singapore and
the Horniman Museum in London.
The Taíno ritual seat was part of the A
History of the World Tour, which has
been seen by well over a million people
at multiple venues from 2014-18.
“The British Museum has a number
of ongoing collaborative research
projects with colleagues and island
governments in the Caribbean.”
The issue of repatriating objects is
one of the most pressing debates in the
museum world, given extra impetus
by a landmark report commissioned
by the French president, Emmanuel
Macron, and published late last year.
The report by Felwine Sarr and
Bénédicte Savoy recommended full
restitution of objects and artworks
taken without consent from their
countries of origin.attacks, body-image issues (“I’m
disgusting”) and bad luck in love,
each of which is raised, addressed
then dispatched in one ukulele ditty.
They’re pert and briskly funny:
she’s entertaining company. But few
insights are yielded, as Booth-Steel
tells us that “sometimes everyone
feels down” so we should “just
focus and be strong”. It’s a feelgood
show about feelbad experiences,
which tends towards fortune-cookie
conclusions.Until 26 AugustReview
Cancer battle
story charms
but also cloys
Brian LoganFive years ago, Amy Booth-Steel
was a jobbing actor, when she was
diagnosed with stage 3 cancer
and told she could be “dead by
Christmas”. So began a journey
through the depths of physical and#HonestAmy
Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
★★★☆☆diagnosis and treatment, after which
she must re learn the use of her right
arm. Then she’s assailed by the
symptoms of PTSD: “people in her
head” whom she learns to control
through therapy – although they still
“pop round for a coff ee and a custard
cream” from time to time.
If that sounds twee, well this is
a show that suggests all obstacles
might be overcome with self-care,
an “amazing” family (including her
revenant deceased granny) and a
few inspirational homilies. Booth-
Steel’s challenges include panic▲ The British Museum was gifted a number of artefacts made by the Taíno, the
indigenous Caribbean people, by a collector PHOTOGRAPH: IAN MACPHERSON/ALAMY
The bird-
man spirit
was found
in a cave
in 1792РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS