For its next Keeping Connected: Repatriation event, MEG will focus on repatriation efforts to and from Chile.

Our guests speakers for the event will be Allison Guzman, Co-Founder of Maple Microdevelopment Chile, a member of the Community Economies Institute, and who works in donor relations at Cultural Survival, Lucas da Costa Maciel, Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC, and a non-Indigenous member of the Kiñelmapu Kowaye Repatriation Commission, based in the Mapuche land, Southern Chile, and Patricia Ayala, academic in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chile with a focus on the processes of patrimonialization, repatriation, restitution and reburial of human bodies and indigenous collections in Atacameño territory, northern Chile.

Alison Guzman: Alison was born in Austin, Texas, and moved with her family to Puno, Peru when she was 2 years old, and afterward to El Salvador. She spent her middle and high school years in Mozambique and South Africa, returning to the U.S. to pursue her undergraduate and graduate studies. Alison moved to Chile in 2013 and has lived there ever since, working closely with Mapuche communities. She is a Co-Founder of Maple Microdevelopment Chile, a member of the Community Economies Institute, and works in donor relations at Cultural Survival. After attending a diploma program in Museum Studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts, which is led by Native Americans, she has been implementing museum tools and methodologies with Mapuche communities in Chile ever since.

Lucas da Costa Maciel: Lucas da Costa Maciel holds a PhD in Social Anthropology. Currently, Lucas is a Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC, and a non-Indigenous member of the Kiñelmapu Kowaye Repatriation Commission, based in the Mapuche land, Southern Chile.

Patricia Ayala: Patricia Ayala, Ph.D. in Anthropology, is an academic in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chile. From collaborative, indigenous and decolonial archaeologies, her research is focused on the processes of patrimonialization, repatriation, restitution and reburial of human bodies and indigenous collections in Atacameño territory, northern Chile. She has made important contributions in the field of theory and disciplinary reflection, which have been published in various journals and books, including Políticas del Pasado: Indígenas, Arqueólogos y Estado en Atacama (2009 and 2018), Indigenous People and Archaeology in Latin America, co-edited with Cristobal Gnecco (2010 and 2012) and the book El regreso de los ancestros: movimientos indígenas de repatriación y redignificación de los cuerpos, co-edited with Jacinta Arthur (2020). She is currently working on a project on repatriation with Atacameño and non-indigenous researchers.

In order to create a safe environment to talk about difficult subjects, we are keeping the capacity of this event at 25 participants, so make sure you register soon! Details of how to log into the online event will be provided closer to the date of the event.