Tradition and Testimony: Protecting Indigenous Ancestral Remains and Cultural Items

The Indigenous Repatriation Movement began in earnest nearly 40 years ago within Indigenous communities and nation-states to establish repatriation laws and create processes to return Indigenous ancestral remains and cultural items to their communities and peoples. Self-determinative domestic legislation, such as the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NMAI Act) and the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NAGPRA), created in the United States in 1989 and 1990, respectively, have led to better relationships with tribes, as well as an increase in the accurate representation of Native American cultures by museums. Increasingly, museums domestically regard Indigenous peoples as the experts of their own cultures and are working to ensure that Indigenous peoples are consulted and that Indigenous perspective is included in exhibits and public education.     Despite domestic breakdowns of institutional racism in museums in the United States, Indigenous peoples worldwide have discovered that the necessity for repatriation extends beyond the borders of their current nation-state or nation-states. The culture of exchange among museums, vast expeditions conducted in Indigenous aboriginal lands, and archaeological digs, as well as looting, have brought ancestors and cultural items beyond current borders that Indigenous peoples live within, and thus, beyond the jurisdiction of domestic repatriation laws. This has led to an international human rights crisis surrounding international repatriation involving free, prior and informed consent. These rights are affirmed through the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and, arguably, have become international norms. Over the past 15 years, a number of Indigenous-driven international repatriation programs have begun, and three preliminary models have emerged: Government-supported programs, Proactive Museum programs, and Indigenous Community programs. My contribution to the roundtable session will center around these topics, as well as the barriers that Indigenous Peoples must overcome to repatriate their ancestors and cultural items.