ASSOCIATION ON AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS ANNOUNCES 8TH ANNUAL REPATRIATION CONFERENCE

TURTLE ISLAND, July 29, 2022 – The Association on American Indian Affairs (the Association) is proud to announce that registration is open for the 8th Annual Repatriation Conference “ReACTivating Our Ancestral Connections.” The conference is themed “ReActivating Our Ancestral Connections because we must all ACT together to reACTivate our relationships with one another and our relationships with the past to create a world where diverse Native cultures and values are lived, protected and respected.

“The Repatriation Conference continues the longstanding legacy of the Association to work at a grassroots level to strengthen our national and collective futures,” said Frank Ettawageshik (Odawa), the Association’s President of its Board of Directors. “Together, we must work to revitalize our diverse cultural practices and empower Native Nations to heal from centuries of dispossession.”

Hosted by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi at the beautiful Four Winds Resort & Casino in New Buffalo, Michigan on October 11, 12 and 13, the Repatriation Conference will look to compliance, advocacy and activism to form strategies and commitments for generational healing while we work together to repatriate our Ancestors’ remains, their burial belongings, sacred objects and cultural patrimony that has been stolen and looted as part of a legacy of violence and racism against Indigenous Peoples.

“We are excited to host this Conference and provide a welcoming and productive space for truth-telling about the impact of stolen cultural items, and how to best work with Native Nations to return our Ancestors and items that are necessary for our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing,” said Nicole Holloway (Potawatomi), Director of the Center of History and Culture for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

Over 300 in-person attendees, plus several hundred virtual participants, including spiritual and traditional leaders, anthropologists, archaeologists, museum curators and directors, auction house experts, dealers and collectors, artists, youth, academics, lawyers, preservation specialists, government agencies, foreign entities and institutions and the public are expected to attend this hybrid conference and focus on collectively healing from the past and committing to being good Ancestors for future generations to come.

Registration scholarships are available to help defray the cost of attending the conference for Tribal and small museum participants. Applications are being accepted until August 15, 2022, on the Association’s website. Scholarships are for those that need it the most and will be prioritized for Elders (over 65), students in University or College, Tribal Spiritual Leaders, Tribal Repatriation Staff, or Staff from an institution working on repatriation with a budget below $250,000.

Keynote speakers include New York Times bestselling author Angeline Boulley (Ojibwe, Anishinaabe); Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), MA the Chief Research Officer at Seattle Indian Health Board and the Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute; and author and professor Jennifer Anne Raff, a geneticist and assistant professor of Anthropology and Indigenous Studies at the University of Kansas specializing in anthropological genetics relating to the initial peopling of the Americas.

All conference registration fees, sponsorships, vendor and exhibitor fees are used to support the Association’s work in repatriation and sacred site protection: protecting sovereignty, preserving culture, educating youth and building capacity. The 8th Annual Repatriation Conference registration, hotel room block information, scholarship applications, sponsorship information and vendor and exhibitor registration are available on the Association on American Indian Affairs website at http://www.Indian-Affairs.org/8thannualrepatriationconference. For questions, send an email to general@Indian-Affairs.org or call (240) 314-7155.

The Association on American Indian Affairs is the oldest non-profit serving Indian Country protecting sovereignty, preserving culture, educating youth and building capacity. The Association was formed in 1922 to change the destructive path of federal policy from assimilation, termination and allotment, to sovereignty, self-determination and self-sufficiency. Throughout its 100-year history, the Association has provided national advocacy on watershed issues that support sovereignty and culture, while working at a grassroots level with Tribes to support the implementation of programs that affect real lives on the ground.