RETURNS
Participatory Rematriation
Indigenous cultural items, sacred objects, artifacts, and ancestors are held in galleries, museums, private collections and even decorate non-Indigenous family homes and businesses.
The plunder of settler-colonialism is still being passed around in wills, deeds, and trusts. Thousands of acres of Indigenous land, every wealth legacy built on extracted resources, our ancestors’ burials, our peoples traditional knowledge, our families baskets and pottery, our grandmother’s regalia. Relatives on both sides of these thefts are still here.
As understanding and knowledge of participation in histories and structures of colonial inequality grows, these legacies are being shifted and transformed. Generations of Indigenous self determination and struggle are bringing some of these relatives home.
RETURNS is a creative engagement sharing stolen pieces of the history of this land that have been returned to the care of Indigenous people. It is open for viewing and participation. You are invited to return things taken.
Are there Indigenous cultural items in your attic?
Have you unknowingly hoarded something sacred?
Did you inherit or find something important to the people whose land you are on?
Do you have generational benefits based on inequalities related to colonization
and feel urged to redistribute your wealth towards Indigenous led work?
This participatory rematriation is curated by Inés Ixierda in collaboration with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation. All objects that are from origins within the territory will be rematraited to the Lisjan Tribe. We will make good faith efforts to restore Indigenous objects from other territories to their relatives.