Ancestors teaching us anew

This panel will present on the ongoing work and finds from ‘Return, Reconcile, Renew: the history, effects and opportunities of repatriation and building an evidence base for the future’ – an Australian Research Council funded Linkage Project examining the history and effects of the repatriation of ancestral remains form museums and other institutions both within Australia and overseas.

The panel will discuss the processes being used in the project to document and contextualise information and knowledge about the removal, subsequent custody and repatriation of ancestral remains to the communities from where they were taken. This work is bringing together explicit knowledge that has been documented in textual, image, and audio-visual records knowledge held in individual and community memory. The goal of the project is to produce a connected knowledge resource that includes copies of records from archives, libraries, museums and communities that meets the repatriation needs of those communities.

Within the context of practicing and learning culture, panel members will discuss the importance of this information for the communities, how they have been able to use this knowledge to support repatriation activities, and the impact that the repatriation and reburial ceremonies have on their own communities.