Digital Return

Digital Return is a research network and online resource providing a place for dialogue and connection and direct links to people and projects related to the return of cultural and linguistic materials to Indigenous communities globally. Over the last twenty years as digital technologies have grown and collecting institutions have embarked on repatriation projects, the return of digital collections to source communities has become more commonplace.  These projects, however, are as diverse as the communities who undertake them. Digital Return is an evolving site to catalogue these projects, provide information to source communities and to highlight divergent ways to manage digital heritage collections and resources.

On January 18-21, 2012, the Smithsonian Institution hosted a workshop titled “After the Return: Digital Repatriation and the Circulation of Indigenous Knowledge,” which was held at the National Museum of Natural History. The presentations, articles, and video accessible through the Digital Return community are from this workshop. The articles were originally published in a special double issue of the Museum of Anthropology Review (vol. 7, nos. 1-2).