49-2: Rematriation - Bringing Home our Past, Present, and Future

On a sunny day in May 2021, I took my two young sons to my favorite childhood spot: the Nation House, where my aunt and Clan Mother, Anita “Mother Bear” Peters, tends a 13-acre farm on Garrett’s Pond in Mashpee, MA. We gathered  with our Wampanoag seedkeepers and our allies, and rematriated King Philip (Metacom), corn back to Wampanoag soil for the first time in over 300 years. The crop was decimated during King Philip’s War, the bloodiest war to ever be fought on American soil.

Rematriation is more than the return of land or cultural items. It is a sacred process of restoring Indigenous relationships to land, water, language, and spiritual responsibility. Where colonization sought to sever these relationships, rematriation centers Indigenous women, matrilineal knowledge systems, and cultural continuity to heal what was disrupted, displaced, or violently stolen. The term itself challenges the dominant colonial concept of “repatriation,” which often frames the return of objects or remains to Tribal communities as a bureaucratic or institutional gesture.

Since the dawn of humanity, human beings have been creators of culture, shaping it according to their worldview to construct an identity.  The stories of Indigenous Peoples have been recorded in stone, wood, palm, clay, bone, and skin. These relics reflect how our ancestors saw the world and hold profound value, as there is a direct link between material culture and living heritage.

It’s 40 degrees Celsius in the desert of La Guajira, Colombia. The landscape is arid, the trees are sparse, and the soil is sandy, orange, and hot. The most common animal you’ll see is a goat, which is found in most dishes throughout the day. This land is also charged with dreams, as this is how the Wayuu receive their messages and stay connected. The Wayuu are the largest Indigenous community of Colombia, but also make their home in Venezuela. In 2023, the first gathering of Wayuu tattooers took place in La Guajira, the traditional territory of the Wayuu Peoples.

Indigenous communities in western Canada are reclaiming their ancestral belongings and bringing the spirits of their ancestors back to the communities where they once lived. Efforts to return ancestral remains and cultural belongings from external museums began in the late 1970s, but only in recent years have truly collaborative relationships between First Nations and museums developed.

In Fall 2023, the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), a Tribally-guided nonprofit serving the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, was presented with an opportunity to purchase 232 acres of land near Nevada City, California, in the Sierra foothills. This land was once part of the thriving Nisenan community and town of Yulića. In a successful grassroots campaign, CHIRP fundraised over $2.5 million. Escrow closed in September 2024 following a lengthy negotiation with local government, the sellers, and county code enforcement.