Repatriation and After? Challenges and Potentials

European museum and university collections (including botanical gardens) have large stocks of cultural objects and human remains whose origins are problematic because they were inappropriately or illegally trafficked and inherited, mainly in the context of imperial and colonial politics. Their repatriation has rightly been identified as a crucial means to rebuild communities, lives and livelihoods. Repatriations can assist the decolonization of education, history and knowledge (production) via cross-cultural engagement and collaboration. They can help to ‘repair’ the significant disruptions imposed on First Nation communities during the colonial regime, both historically and into the future.

Against this backdrop, this Work in Progress seminar is concerned with what happens after repatriations of human remains and cultural objects have been accomplished. Central to this are the voices of diverse stakeholders and practitioners, such as museums, university collections and (Indigenous) communities. The seminar will flesh out some of the challenges that surface after repatriation such as a lack of pressure to deliver, means of raising awareness, of educating people, of restituting language, etc. How might these challenges be met on equitable terms? How are we to mobilize and nurture the reparatory power of repatriation within the larger decolonial project?

Presenter Carsten Wergin is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Germany) and Chairperson of the German Association for Australian Studies (GASt). His anthropological work is located at the intersections of heritage, culture, and ecology, with regional foci in Australia, Europe, and the wider Indian Ocean World. At ANU, he looks into repatriations of cultural objects and human remains as transcultural processes of repair.

Two indicative publications by the presenter:

Wergin, C. 2022. All Landscape is Collaborative: Re-Mobilizing Care and Concern on a Damaged Planet. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 35(3): 445-459. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2022.2095991

Wergin, C. 2021. Healing through Heritage? The Repatriation of Human Remains from European Collections as Potential Sites of Reconciliation. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 30/1: 123-133. https://doi.org/10.3167/ajec.2021.300109