VICTORIA -- The British Columbia government says it's providing financial support to Indigenous communities that want their ancestral remains and cultural objects returned.

Countless Indigenous pieces of art, artifacts and human remains are held by museums in Canada and around the world and many local communities and human rights experts have said they should be returned home.

The government is providing $500,000 to the BC Museums Association to provide a range of grants to support communities at various stages of the process.

The funding will support repatriation planning, building capacity to take on such projects and encouraging collaboration with cultural organizations.

Lisa Beare, minister of tourism, arts and culture, says in a statement that repatriation is an essential part of reconciliation.

The government has previously provided $2 million over three years to the Royal BC Museum for repatriation activities, including a symposium, granting program and the creation of a repatriation handbook.

Dan Smith, chairman of the BC Museums Association Indigenous advisory committee, says the funding allows museums, archives and Indigenous peoples new opportunities to work together toward decolonization and realizing the goals set out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“True, meaningful and lasting reconciliation must include the return of Indigenous culture back to Indigenous communities,” says Smith, who is a member of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation.

The Royal BC Museum in Victoria changed its policies last year to no longer collect or study ancestral remains.

The museum has also announced that anything it acquired from Indigenous Peoples during the anti-potlatch years, from 1885 to 1951, will be considered eligible for repatriation because it was obtained at a time of duress.

During those years, the federal government banned potlatch ceremonies, which were important social events where valuable gifts were given to show generosity and status over rivals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2020.