The big debate in the museum world – is what they do with artefacts acquired as a result of colonialism. Manchester Museum held a ceremony to repatriate items taken from the aboriginal Anindilyakwa community – on an island off the coast of Australia. One of the highlights of the collection is a group of dolls made from shells that kids would have played with. The BBC’s reporter Beth Timmins was there:
Listen back to the BBC’s Global News Podcast on BBC Sounds:
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Beth Timmins is a doctoral student at the University of Oxford. Her research explores the protection and weaponisation of cultural heritage in, and of, conflict. Beth also has a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology and MSc in Visual and Museum Ethnography from Oxford. For the past two years, she has written and taught an 8-week final honours course on cultural heritage in armed conflict for Archaeology & Anthropology undergraduates at the university. It has been the most heavily subscribed course for both years.
Outside of academia, Beth is a visual artist and broadcast journalist with BBC News. She uses drawing, audio recordings and prose to deepen her ethnographic study. Her audio reports, articles and television work has featured on BBC World News, Radio 4 and World Service. She has undertaken academic research, reportage, and art residencies in counties including Mongolia, the Falklands and Mexico. Her drawings and written chapters have been published in both books and media sites.
Beth also volunteers producing audio interviews with charities, the Prison Radio Association, Art Box and The Hospice Biographers and ran a marathon to raise funds for cluster munition remnant clearance.