The rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has opened up a whole new area of discussion related to NAGPRA and extending this human rights legislation to other marginalized groups. The following materials can help create a foundational understand of how NAGPRA, as a piece of human rights legislation may create a starting point for restorative justice for other groups.
Wenner-Gren Foundation webinar series From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology
Columbia University Video of panel on ‘Archaeology in the time of Black Lives Matter’
The Society of Black Archaeologists, The Theoretical Archaeology Group (North America), The Columbia Center for Archaeology Working Document “Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter” Resources List
Columbia Center for Archaeology, "Anti-Racist Resources"
Dunnavant, J., Justinvil, D., & Colwell, C. (2021). Craft an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Nature, 593(7859), 337. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01320-4
Ezeluomba, N. C. (2021). Reflection on Benin Repatriation Conversation. African Arts, 54(1), 7–8.
Flewellen, A. O., Dunnavant, J. P., Odewale, A., Jones, A., Wolde-Michael, T., Crossland, Z., & Franklin, M. (2021). “The Future of Archaeology Is Antiracist”: Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter. American Antiquity, 86(2), 224–243. Open access available here.
Justinvil, D. & Colwell, C. (2021) Why Are Black People's Remains in Museums. Sapiens. https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/museums-human-remains/
(2020) Museums Are Filled With Stolen African Art. Is It Time To Return It? NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912001044/museums-are-filled-with-stolen-African-art-is-it-time-to-return-it
(2020) Reflecting on the Restitution of Art to the Benin Kingdom in the Wake of the Sarr-Savoy Report. de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. Video courtesy of the de Young Museum.https://youtu.be/-2UJ39zkXOE
Weeber, C. (2021) What Will It Take to Stop Swimming in the Waters of Racism? Sapiens. https://www.sapiens.org/culture/ubuntu-white-people/
White, W. & Draycott, C. (2020) Why the Whiteness of Archaeology Is a Problem. Sapiens. https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/archaeology-diversity/
American University's Washington College of Law has worked since 2008 to compile a directory of State Burial Laws.
The Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) research project has two working groups that deal with issues relating to NAGPRA: "Bioarchaeology, Genetics, and Intellectual Property" and "Intellectual Property and Research Ethics". Visit their pages for publications, news stories, fact sheets, and more; videos of their lectures are available on their youtube channel.
Project Archaeology has developed a teaching guide called "Investigating the First Peoples, The Clovis Child Burial". According to their website:
"The guide is a perfect first unit for United States History (Grades 8-12) with two lessons and a final performance of understanding. Students will read current news reports, write an Archaeology Discovery Report, debate ethics of studying ancient human remains, write a persuasive essay, and join students from across the nation in creating memorials to the Clovis Child. Included in the resource section is a collection of relevant news articles on this amazing discovery in an easy to print and distribute newspaper, Clovis Chronicle."
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1449465, 1540447.
