The question of repatriation has become one of the key issues framing the relationship between Indigenous communities, researchers and cultural institutions. Myriad of locally driven initiatives attest to the enduring value Indigenous groups place on their materials held in museum collections and archives. As a multiscalar phenomenon, these initiatives have required the negotiation of innovative partnerships, the crafting of diplomatic agreements, the review of international protocols and changes in national policies and laws. In this panel, we consider repatriation as a process which concerns both the physical return of objects and human remains to their communities of origin and the digitisation of collections for local access and purposes. Repatriation generates new and heterogeneous discourses and practices which can relate to: politics of recognition and social justice; transmission, cultural revitalisation and creation of new ceremonial forms; changing ethics of research and museum representation. We invite empirically grounded papers which attend to contemporary repatriation practices in the Pacific. We are interested in how different groups are creatively engaging in these processes on the ground. How have Pacific peoples approached the complex issue of repatriation? Have these approaches evolved overtime? How are these materials reinvested once repatriated?
Paper submissions are closed