The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation

This volume brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous repatriation practitioners and researchers to provide the reader with an international overview of the removal and return of Ancestral Remains.

The Ancestral Remains of Indigenous peoples are today housed in museums and other collecting institutions globally. They were taken from anywhere the deceased can be found, and their removal occurred within a context of deep power imbalance within a colonial project that had a lasting effect on Indigenous peoples worldwide. Through the efforts of First Nations campaigners, many have returned home. However, a large number are still retained. In many countries, the repatriation issue has driven a profound change in the relationship between Indigenous peoples and collecting institutions. It has enabled significant steps towards resetting this relationship from one constrained by colonisation to one that seeks a more just, dignified and truthful basis for interaction. The history of repatriation is one of Indigenous perseverance and success. The authors of this book contribute major new work and explore new facets of this global movement. They reflect on nearly 40 years of repatriation, its meaning and value, impact and effect.

This book is an invaluable contribution to repatriation practice and research, providing a wealth of new knowledge to readers with interests in Indigenous histories, self-determination and the relationship between collecting institutions and Indigenous peoples.

Cressida Fforde is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, The Australian National University. From 2011–2019 she was Deputy Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, ANU. Since 1991, she has undertaken research within the repatriation field for Indigenous communities and institutions internationally, particularly in the location and identification of Ancestral Remains through archival research. Dr Fforde’s work and publications have contributed significantly to scholarship in this area. She is recognised internationally for the knowledge she brings to repatriation practice and the analysis of the history of the removal and return of Indigenous Ancestral Remains. She was the lead Chief Investigator for the Return, Reconcile, Renew (2013–2016) and Restoring Dignity (2018–2020) projects, both funded by the Australian Research Council.

C. Timothy McKeown is a legal anthropologist whose career has focused exclusively on the development and use of explicit ethnographic methodologies to document the cultural knowledge of communities and use that knowledge to enhance policy development and implementation. He has been intimately involved in the documentation and application of Indigenous knowledge to the development of U.S. repatriation policy since 1991. For 18 years, he served as a Federal official responsible for drafting regulations implementing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), developing databases to document compliance, establishing a grants program, investigating allegations of failure to comply for possible civil penalties, coordinating the activities of a Secretarial advisory committee, and providing training and technical assistance to nearly 1,000 museums and Federal agencies and 700 indigenous communities across the U.S. He has served as Partner Investigator on multiple grants from the Australian Research Council. He is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University, and a visiting instructor in cultural heritage studies, Central European University. He was a partner investigator on the Return, Reconcile, Renew (2013–2016) and Restoring Dignity (2018–2020) projects, both funded by the Australian Research Council.

Honor Keeler (Cherokee) is Assistant Director of Utah Diné Bikéyah and holds an honorary position at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at The Australian National University. She is currently a member of the NAGPRA Review Committee and was previously Director of the International Repatriation Project at the Association on American Indian Affairs. She is well regarded for her expertise in repatriation matters and has worked extensively to support Indigenous repatriation efforts, including bringing the legal, policy and legislative concerns of Native Americans in international repatriation to national and international forums. Honor was in charge of coordinating repatriation of Wesleyan University collections to Native nations, and the development related protocols, as well as teaching university courses on repatriation within a cultural resources and cultural property context. She is author of A Guide to International Repatriation: Starting an Initiative in Your Community, She graduated in 2010 with a JD and Indian Law Certificate (clinical honours) from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She was a partner investigator on the Return, Reconcile, Renew (2013–2016) and Restoring Dignity (2018–2020) projects, both funded by the Australian Research Council.