Here is an update for one of the cases included in NAGPRA Comics 1: Journeys to Complete the Work... And changing the way we bring Native American ancestors home. Due to community activism and support from organizations like the Association of American Indian Affairs (see their letter to Harvard on Feb 18, 2021 here), Harvard has reversed it's stance on returning traveling items (funerary objects) with culturally unidentified Native ancestors. A Reckoning on Native American Remains and Cultural ObjectsFull article from March 30,2021 by Stephanie Mitchell at The Harvard Gazette here. Philip Deloria, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, chair of the NAGPRA Advisory Committee, and past chair of the Repatriation Committee at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, in an interview: "GAZETTE: The University has admitted past missteps concerning burial belongings. What were those and how are they being made right? DELORIA: It centers around unidentified human remains and the return of funerary objects associated with those remains. Those are burial belongings, which are interred with an individual and are associated with that specific person. Under new NAGPRA regulations in 2010, these objects were recommended but not required to be returned when a museum repatriated unidentified human remains. This is really a “spirit of the law/letter of the law” issue. The Peabody here was following the letter of the law, but it wasn’t following the spirit. The museum did indeed refuse to voluntarily return these belongings to tribal nations. And the tribes called Harvard out on it. But when the new Museum Director Jane Pickering and Dean Gay constituted a Peabody NAGPRA Advisory committee in May 2020, the very first item on our agenda was this very issue. We agreed that retaining those funerary objects was not the right decision, and we have been making every effort to repair that mistake. Despite statements to the contrary, we had a proposal for a policy change ready in December and approved in early February to allow for the return of associated funerary objects. We’re currently planning outreach to previously affected tribes right now to reopen consultation on these burial belongings." Another NAGPRA issue is in the works!Stay tuned! While COVID-19 slowed down some of our plans for last year, NAGPRA Comics is happy to report that we just restarted working on a new issue at the invitation of a Native Nation about the return of sacred items. Our planning and production meetings resumed via video calls in February of 2021 and we are enjoying working on a new repatriation story. Each issue is created through a different process, depending on what is appropriate for the specific community. We look forward to sharing more with you about this unique process and comic in the future!
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NAGPRA ComicsJen Shannon Archives
January 2023
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