The 2025 Audain Symposium’s theme is “Rethinking Patrimony, Restitution, & Repatriation: New Pathways & Puzzles in Native Cultural Heritage.” Our panels of academics, graduate students, museum professionals, and Indigenous experts will present papers and scholarship that examine particularly novel or creative approaches to the repatriation of Indigenous belongings, as well as the unique challenges or obstacles that arise in repatriation efforts across the globe. Emanating from diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds, presenters discuss case studies and speculative research, as well as legal loopholes and current debates. In addition to scholarship that explores the return of physical belongings, possessions, and remains, our panelists propose notions of repatriation that include the reunification of music, literature/language, land, and intellectual property or intangible knowledge. Join our gathering to share your own expertise and make cross-cultural connections, generate lively dialogue, and incubate solutions, while considering questions such as:

How does federal legislation (or lack thereof) help or hinder repatriation? ● How do we approach objects with contested histories or descendants? ● Who determines the validity of repatriation claims? ● How do definitions of property, ownership, and stewardship differ across communities? ● What alternative modes of repatriation exist? ● How effective are long-term loans, 3-D printing, and commissioned replicas? ● What does the afterlife of repatriated objects look like? ● How are humor and celebration, as well as solemnity and sadness, intertwined with repatriation?