Repatriation and Ethnographic Archives: Katherine Routledge's Mangareva Field Notes in the Royal Geographic Society Collections

Abstract

Just over 100 years after Katherine Routledge's 1921–1922 expedition to the Mangareva Islands, digitized copies of a portion of her field notes from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London were returned to the source community in French Polynesia. Historical ethnographic fieldnotes represent an underutilized primary source of cultural knowledge in repatriation activities as part of a broader push by cultural institutions to decolonize. Broadening access to this kind of information raises unresolved issues about how best to manage archival documents among Oceanic communities living in a digital world. Ongoing questions include the legitimacy of digital return of documents or objects as opposed to physical originals; and how much use or value source communities receive from such returns. We advocate for addressing these on a case‐by‐case basis, in conversation with community collaborators, and explain our reasoning and approaches in this Mangarevan example.