Terevaka Archaeological Outreach (TAO) 2020 Project Report: Digital Repatriation

Abstract

The Ngaro Project presents the products of research and educational outreach conducted by Terevaka Archaeological Outreach (TAO) between 2009 and 2020. The focus of the project is to organize information originally collected by Easter Island resident and activist, Ida Luz "Piru" Hucke Atan, regarding cultural resources from the island that now reside in collections across the world. Visits to twelve museums across the U.S. helped to amass an interactive database of high-resolution images of 447 objects (www.terevaka.net/ngaro). The project not only provides an example of digital repatriation, but also provides a structure for a multimedia, online platform that could lead to additional crowd-sourcing of information to develop a more inclusive approach for museums and Indigenous communities to collaborate in the future.

Terevaka Archaeological Outreach (TAO) 2019 Field Report: Creating Digital Access to Cultural Heritage

“…TAO projects of 2019 build upon a tradition of non-invasive research, reinforcing the notion of sustainable development on the island, and promoting resourcefulness and expertise in a wide variety of professional careers (Shepardson et al 2004(Shepardson et al , 2010(Shepardson et al , 2011(Shepardson et al , 2012(Shepardson et al , 2013(Shepardson et al , 2014(Shepardson et al , 2015(Shepardson et al , 2016(Shepardson et al , 2018Torres & Shepardson 2005;Shepardson 2006Shepardson , 2010Shepardson , 2013Rutherford et al 2008;Petney et al 2015;Sullivan et al 2018).…”