Can Repatriation Heal the Wounds of History?

Abstract

In 1990, the US Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which in part established a legal procedure for Native Americans to reclaim cultural items and ancestral remains from museums and federal agencies. Many advocates have framed NAGPRA as a kind of restorative justice in which “healing” is fundamentally integrated into the repatriation process. This article engages with a growing literature that ensures questions of healing are not just casually asserted but closely examined, by critically analyzing why and how NAGPRA has led to the kinds of conflict resolution and peace-building envisioned by some of its proponents. A survey of tribal repatriation workers reveals that “healing” for Native American communities is not uniform in practice or merely the end point of conflict. Rather, it is expressed in five different themes, illustrating that healing is one component of a complex socio-political process that circles around the law’s implementation.

Introduction

“…. rather [it] was geared towards a kind of restorative justice in which the history of disrespect would be replaced by respectful repatriations” (Colwell, 2019, 92). As the only law of its kind, NAGPRA has also had global influence, helping to chart new directions for Indigenous‐settler relations (Fforde, McKeown, and Keeler, 2020; Meloche, Spake, and Nichols, 2020) and for other groups whose graves have long been the subject of anthropological study.…”

Archaeology and Social Justice in Native America

“…Chip Colwell (2019a) claims that repatriation forced museum curators to sit down with Tribal leaders and craft a new relationship, built on mutual respect, and that “such gains are extended even further when the return of ancestors and artifacts becomes a form of restorative justice.” Drawing on Desmond Tutu's words, he equates repatriation with the process of reconciliation that followed the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa, because both processes evoke “the healing of breaches, the redressing of imbalances, the restoration of broken relationships” (Colwell 2019b:93). As a unified democracy that was established on Indigenous land and without Indigenous consent, the United States would do well to pay more attention to the human rights of the original and First Nations of this land.…”

Confronting the Present: Archaeology in 2019

“…Indigenous archaeologies are also showing a capacity for restorative justice, bringing to some Indigenous individuals and communities a sense of redress and healing (Colwell 2019). The repatriation of cultural objects through NAGPRA, for example, has begun to repair relationships between the living and the ancestors and between Indigenous and scientific communities.…”