Event: Waystation Workshop: Strategizing Voluntary Returns of Cultural Heritage to Mexico

The UCLA Waystation Initiative and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology invite you to a Waystation Workshop at UCLA on Saturday March 9, 2024. As part of a weekend of celebratory events marking the 50th anniversary of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, this workshop will bring together Mesoamerican specialists to engage in foreword-thinking dialogue about the restitution and protection of the region’s tangible cultural heritage.

The Waystation Initiative is a groundbreaking endeavor that organizes and facilitates the voluntary return of international archaeological and ethnographic objects to the nation or community of origin. Waystation Workshops are community engagement opportunities that offer collaborative learning and training. Through workshops, specialists present research that focuses on threats to and the protection of the world’s tangible cultural heritage.

Our March 2024 workshop will consider the history and future of repatriation and restitution of tangible cultural heritage to Mexico. The regional focus of this Waystation Workshop emerged as part of an effort to assist with the voluntary return of objects from the Museum of the Cherokee People. We have invited specialists in Mexican and Central American archeology and anthropology to assist with identifying the objects and to discuss topics relating to repatriations to those regions.

The event will begin the morning of March 9 and will include 4-5 speakers presenting perspectives on cultural heritage repatriation, decolonizing collections, provenance research, working with descendant communities and governments, and related topics. The event will be hybrid, in person and via Zoom.

Email waystation@ioa.ucla.edu for more information. 

Register here

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Speakers and Topics

Christian de Brer – Director of Conservation, Fowler Museum at UCLA
Materiality, Provenance and Restoration of Ancient West Mexican Ceramics and Next Steps for Museum-based Collections

Edith Ortiz Diaz - Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Learning and Sharing: The Museum of Tuxtepec, Oaxaca

Victoria Lyall - Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator, Art of the Ancient Americas, Denver Art Museum
The Memory of Water: The Museum Space as a Bridge between Contemporary Indigenous Communities and the Latinx Diaspora

Blanca Maldonado - Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos, El Colegio de Michoacán, A.C.
Methods for Identifying the Origin of Archaeological or Anthropological Objects

Jesse Lerner - Professor of Media Studies, Pitzer College
Sandra Rozental - Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
Film Screening: La Piedra Ausente (The Absent Stone)

Andrew Turner – Senior Research Specialist, Getty Research Institute
The Pre-Hispanic Art Provenance Initiative: Analysis and Mobilization of the Stendahl Art Galleries Records