Conference Agenda

Take part in substantive and interactive panels in person with leading experts on repatriation and cultural heritage and special keynote, cultural, networking and other events!

The 8th Annual Repatriation Conference continues the longstanding legacy of the Association to work at a grassroots level in order to strengthen our national and collective futures.

This year’s Conference is a hybrid Conference (virtual and in-person). These will be intensive working days (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) for Tribal leaders and representatives, repatriation practitioners, museums, academics, attorneys and others who take part in interactive training. The Conference will be providing a mix of events developed to bring us together, build community and encourage relationship building.
Download the FINAL PROGRAM and AGENDA here, or review below.

Get to know our Keynote speakers!

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Photo Credit: Marcella Hadden
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Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island. Firekeeper's Daughter is her debut novel, and was an instant #1 NYT Bestseller. It also won the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature (Teen category) in 2022. 

​In this riveting novel, a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine, has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team.
​Abigail Echo-Hawk, MA is Pawnee and was born in the heart of Alaska where she was raised in the traditional values of giving, respect for all, and love. Ms. Echo-Hawk currently serves as the Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, and the Chief Research Officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board. Her work incorporates these core principles and activities: engagement and participation of community partners; research and evaluation on health, healthcare, and other community priorities; education, training, and capacity-building for Native people, including researchers, students, and communities; infrastructure development; technical assistance; and sharing results in a way that recognizes and respects the unique cultural contexts of American Indian and Alaska Native people. In these roles she also works with American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and organizations to identify health research priorities and with health researchers to ensure research is done in a manner that respects tribal sovereignty and is culturally appropriate.
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Dr. Jennifer Raff is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas with a dual Ph.D. in anthropology and genetics and over fourteen years of experience in researching ancient and modern human DNA from the Americas. Dr. Raff authored ORIGIN, the story of who the first peoples in the Americas were, how and why they made the crossing, how they dispersed south, and how they lived based on a new and powerful kind of evidence: their complete genomes.

​ORIGIN provides an overview of these new histories throughout North and South America, and a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution. It serves as a primer for anyone interested in how genetics has become entangled with identity in the way that society addresses the question "Who is indigenous?"