Our ancestors have been the caretakers of our sacred objects since time immemorial.

As a group of Tibetans organizing to hold the Rubin Museum accountable for decades of violent exploitation of our sacred ancestral objects, we strongly oppose the museum further displacing the Tibetan Shrine Room to the Brooklyn Museum for the next six years. We cannot allow the Brooklyn Museum parade our sacred objects as they continue to profit from the ongoing colonization and genocide of the Palestinian people. The Shrine Room must be returned into the proper care of the Tibetan community.

In many museums, the Tibetan object relatives that you encounter were carried out of our homelands on our grandparents' backs when they fled the Chinese occupation in the 1950s. Museums, which profit off the continued dispossession of our object relatives, are inherently at odds with true ethical stewardship. This is true of the Rubin, and it’s especially true of the Brooklyn Museum. As demonstrated by their continued silence and complicity on genocides from Tibet to Palestine, these institutions do not serve us.

New York City has the largest Tibetan community in the country. There are plenty of Tibetan-led institutions, organizations, and community centers that can take care of our sacred objects as we have always done. Instead, the Rubin has chosen to pass off our sacred objects to a museum that brutalizes protesters and houses its own robust collection of stolen Tibetan objects. We expect no less of colonial institutions that extract from our communities and expect us to be grateful for scraps.

Our ancestors are our North Stars - they are the compasses that point us toward what is right. And as we organize in service of liberation, we bring all of our relatives, including those held captive in the museum, with us.