France to repatriate remains of Indigenous people from 'human zoos'

France's Senate has unanimously backed a bill on repatriating the remains of Kalina people who died after being displayed in so-called "human zoos," marking a step toward acknowledging one of the darkest chapters of the country's colonial history.

Report's European bureau informs, citing French media, that the remains of Indigenous people from overseas territories had been kept in the country's museum collections for more than a century.

Six Kalina people from French Guiana, France's overseas territory in South America, died in Paris after taking part in an 1892 ethnographic exhibition at the Jardin d'Acclimatation park, where colonial authorities displayed people from conquered territories as "exotic exhibits."

Among those brought to Paris were children, teenagers and young people. A total of 33 Kalina and Arawak people were taken there.

"We are talking about men and women, about people who were torn away from their homeland and their people and stripped of their dignity," said Senator Catherine Morin-Desailly, one of the authors of the bill.

The remains of those who died were later exhumed for anthropological research. They remained in French state museums for more than 130 years.

Corinne Toka-Devilliers, the great-great-granddaughter of a 12-year-old girl named Moliko, who was also among the participants in the 1892 exhibition, played a special role in the fight for their return. According to her, the lawmakers' decision means not only the repatriation of the remains, but also the restoration of lost human identity.

"To name them is to restore their human dignity. It means giving back an identity to people whose bodies lay nameless in a museum for more than 130 years," Toka-Devilliers said.

Historians estimate that in the 19th and 20th centuries, about 35,000 people from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania were displayed in Europe and the United States as part of such "ethnological shows," which were intended both to entertain the public and reinforce colonial perceptions of "other peoples." In France, such exhibitions existed until the mid-20th century, up to the 1950s.

Two years ago, a ceremony was held at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, attended by shamans and Indigenous leaders from French Guiana and Suriname. They gathered near the remains of their ancestors to perform a ritual of "appeasing the souls."

"Our people are ready to bring them home. And our land is ready to receive them," Toka-Devilliers said. "But there are other families still waiting for the chance to bury their ancestors."

The return of the remains will be not only a legal act, but also a symbolic recognition that behind museum showcases, archive cards and anthropological collections were living people - children, families and entire peoples turned into exhibits by the colonial era.