Institutionalizing Repatriation: Creating a More Inclusive University Policy

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Reimagining Repatriation: Providing Frameworks for Inclusive Cultural Restitution", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

As part of ongoing NAGPRA compliance, Michigan State University recently drafted its first official NAGPRA policy. As part of the discussions surrounding the creation of this policy, two things became clear 1) that as a university, we are committed to “working collaboratively with Indigenous Tribes, communities and Native Nations to facilitate the exercise of these rights [UNDRIP] in relation to university collections” and that 2) we would also need a policy that would provide guidance on returning cultural heritage to communities not covered by NAGPRA. MSU had completed such returns in the past, such as a 2018 return to Bolivia. However, we wanted a formal process in place that could guide future work inspired by both this previous repatriation and the NAGPRA process. This presentation will discuss the processes we used for drafting these policies, as well as what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and future directions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Reimagining Repatriation: Providing Frameworks for Inclusive Cultural Restitution

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow