Voluntariness and the Repatriation of Human Remains from Colonial Contexts (1970-2021)

• Applicant: Dr. Silvan Niedermeier
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413222647

The sub-project examines the meaning of voluntariness within the global history of the repatriation of Australian and US-American Indigenous Ancestral Remains, from the 1970s to the present. It analyzes how postcolonial power relations and voluntariness interact in repatriation contexts up until today. In addition, it shows that repatriation practices are attached to wide-ranging societal developments that have established the repatriation of Indigenous Ancestral Remains as a normative paradigm over the course of the past five decades. The sub-project centers, first, on the conflicts between Indigenous activists and museum representatives regarding repatriations of Indigenous Ancestral Remains in Australia and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Second, it investigates the differing implications of the return of Indigenous Ancestral Remains based on museum policies in Australia since the late 1980s and the legally mandated repatriation in the United States since 1990. Third, it discusses the conflicts over the repatriation of Australian and US-American Indigenous Ancestral Remains from British and German museums and collections from the early 1990s until today. Analytically, the sub-project will focus on selected repatriation cases, which are approached from a micro- and macro-historical perspective. The research base consists of museum files, archival records of Indigenous rights organizations, oral history interviews, and newspaper reports. The sub-project is of vital importance for the Research Group and the achievement of its goals in several regards. First, it significantly contributes to the analysis of voluntariness from a postcolonial and global history perspective. Second, it calls attention to the meaning of voluntariness in the context of recently intensified debates on colonial guilt, postcolonial responsibility, and repatriation. Third, it shows how changing normative-ethical frames contributed to the shaping of understandings of voluntariness and continue to do so at the present. Publication results will encompass a book publication, a journal article, and at least one blog post.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2983: Freiwilligkeit