Repatriation of Aboriginal sacred objects: Prospects for the return of the poorly provenanced

This paper explores the challenges of repatriating poorly documented Aboriginal sacred religious objects from Central Australia. The authors present an overview of historical endeavours to repatriate these objects from Australian domestic museums and the progress of recent returns from international collections. Detailed documentation, including reference to an object’s specific relationship to places, people or ancestral stories is critical to ensuring that rightful contemporary Central Australian Aboriginal people can assume care and responsibility for any repatriated objects. The absence of provenance data and any other related collection documentation can therefore greatly inhibit the return of these objects to present-day custodians. Exploring the prospect of returning large numbers of poorly provenanced sacred objects back to Australia, this paper argues that aside from the potential logistical or infrastructure requirements of repatriating these items, the development of Indigenous cultural frameworks and innovations will be critical to any meaningful repatriation outcomes.