Format: Panel discussion
Organisers:
Madalyn Grant, PhD Candidate and Gates Cambridge Scholar, Dept of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, England, mg2172@cam.ac.uk
Emily Tomlinson, Yuin woman, Indigenous Academic Associate, Return Reconcile Renew Centre, Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies and PhD Candidate, Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian National University, Australia, emily.tomlinson@anu.edu.au
Emotions are woven through our everyday life, transcending national and ethnic boundaries—universal in their presence, yet deeply personal in their expression. This universality lends significance to a session addressing the intersections of emotions and repatriation, especially given the limited attention paid to how emotions shape and are shaped by processes of return, particularly those of institutional professionals with ‘neutral’ expertise. Indeed, emotions felt towards, through and because of repatriation are not solely relevant to Indigenous peoples around the world—despite historical positionings and expectations—nor should it be their sole responsibility to highlight the importance of such affective threads. By acknowledging and engaging with these emotional registers, more authentic opportunities for inter-community reconciliation and peace-building and intra-community empowerment and cultural revitalisation can be identified and incorporated into praxis. As such, we hope to build a session for dialogue and case studies, for perspectives from both Indigenous peoples and museum practitioners.
Papers:
Confessions of a Repatriation Rescue Pet Over 3 1/2 Decades of Teturning the O.Gs
Edward Halealoha Ayau, Executive Director, Hui Iwi Kuamo’o, Hilo, Hawaii, USA
Edward Halealoha Ayau is ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) who has taken part in over 162 national and international repatriations of iwi kūpuna (ancestral Hawaiian bones), moepū (funerary possessions) and mea makamae (sacred objects and cultural patrimony). His paper will discuss issues surrounding kaumaha (emotional, spiritual, physical) heaviness and grief and its devastating impacts on his psyche as a kane (Hawaiian man) as a result of his participation in three and a half decades of repatriation and reburial. Discussion will include the importance of ho‘oku‘u (physical and spiritual release) and the even greater importance of mālama pono (self-care). Halealoha will also discuss the courage demonstrated by museum staff when engaging in active repatriations and his observations of the kaumaha they have endured, the aloha they have expressed, the grief they have released and the beers they have consumed with him, which has resulted in the ultimate outcome of shared- humanity which in turn has uplifted our relationships to each other as human beings.
Pakistan’s Struggle for Its Art: British Empire, India, and Pakistan
Muhammad Nishat Hussain, Institute of Global and Historical Studies, Government College University Lahore Pakistan
Restitution is not merely about returning artefacts; it is emotional reckoning with histories of loss, displacement, and justice. This paper explores how Pakistan has been doubly deprived of its cultural heritage, first through British colonial looting and later through India’s post-Partition retention of thousands of artefacts. By archival research, it examines the Koh-I-Noor diamond, seized from Lahore in 1849 by the British, and the Mohenjo-Daro ‘Dancing Girl’, excavated in present-day Pakistan but retained by India. These artefacts are not just historical objects, but symbols of identity and collective memory, their absence deepening grief in communities and highlighting the past injustice.
The study challenges the dominant restitution discourse that frames repatriation as a struggle between Western institutions and former colonies. Instead, it highlights post-colonial states’ demands for justice from Western museums, which have retained artefacts themselves. By addressing these overlooked dimensions, this paper stresses a restitution framework that moves beyond legal formalities and token gestures. Recognising the emotional weight of these contested histories is critical for fostering reconciliation, acknowledging historical wounds, and ensuring that displaced heritage is restored to the communities from which it was taken.
Zeal in the Cause of Science: The Language of ‘Scientific’ Enthusiasm for the Collecting and Retention of Aboriginal Ancestral Remains
Madalyn Grant, Dept of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, England
Emily Tomlinson, Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies and PhD Candidate, Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian National University, Australia
Aboriginal Australian Ancestral Remains were taken, collected, and studied in the name of understanding the natural history of mankind. By attending to the emotives of zeal, this paper moves to unpick the ways in which fervent commitments to knowledge production and science have shaped the language of cultural authority and ethics in regard to Ancestral Remains. We address this in the context of the acquisition and retention of Ancestors. Tracing the emotives’ evolution from the nineteenth-century scientific fervour for bone-snatching to the divisive campaigns to retain Ancestors during twentieth-century repatriation debates. We begin by examining how those involved in acquiring Aboriginal Ancestors framed their practices as one of noble necessity; defending their violence with passionate and paternalistic rhetoric about the importance of collecting for scientific progress and preservation. In the decades that followed, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, archaeologists, anthropologists, and heritage professionals would (non)consciously adopt similarly emotive positions against repatriation campaigns ‘for’ science. This work centres an understanding of the ways in which such zeal-filled arguments, both motivated the acquisition and retention of Ancestors and, exist at a persistent intersection of emotion, power, and colonial legacies within the field of archaeology and heritage management.