Reconceptualizing Repatriation as the Power to Decide

Abstract

Repatriation in Canada is highly situational, with relatively few regulations in place to assist Indigenous communities in returning their cultural belongings home, let alone to protect their rights as stewards. This paper provides a public policy analysis of repatriation regulations in Canada, with special attention paid to the situation they present to the public, to recommend areas for change. We juxtapose these findings with Indigenous repatriation policies and an ethnographic case study partnered with the Tłı̨chǫ Government, which reinterprets repatriation using Tłı̨chǫ traditions for caring for cultural heritage. We focused on two areas of inquiry concerning (1) the identification of existing conflicts between western and Indigenous repatriation directives (e.g., laws, policies, and regulations); and (2) the exploration of repatriation as imagined through an Indigenous lens. Our findings show that we must reconceptualize repatriation from an exchange between two parties into the reclamation of the power to decide how heritage is managed by descendant communities. Contrasting policy analysis with ethnographic data, we found that such a reorientation can only be achieved through both practice and law reform aimed not at strict regulation, but at providing a secure basis upon which Indigenous communities can resituate themselves as recognized stewards of their cultural heritage at home and afar.