Repatriation and Shared Heritage: Making Connections between Brighton and Botswana

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is hosting Repatriation and Shared Heritage: Making Connections between Brighton and Botswana on Wednesday 7 October, from 3.00pm to 4.30pm in the Museum Lab. It's a talk and the premiere of a new short film, followed by a panel discussion, and it marks a long-term project that reached a milestone earlier this year: in May 2026, Brighton & Hove Museums repatriated 45 objects to the Khama III Memorial Museum in Botswana.

The afternoon opens with the talk and the film, which traces the objects' journey home. After that, the conversation moves to a panel where curators, academics and community figures consider the benefits of shared heritage and repatriation for communities. The whole session is built around the museum's commitment to returning cultural material to its place of origin and the ongoing relationships that grow from that kind of work.

The panel brings together a few different perspectives on the subject. Portia Tremlett is Curator of World Cultures at Brighton & Hove Museums, and JoAnn McGregor is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sussex. Joining them are Bert Williams MBE and Suchi Chatterjee, both of Brighton & Hove Black History. Between them, you've got the museum's own side of things, the academic angle, and the community voice, so the discussion should cover a fair bit of ground.

It's free with Brighton Museum admission, and members get in free. The session runs from 3.00pm to 4.30pm on Wednesday 7 October in the Museum Lab, inside the Royal Pavilion Gardens.