ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the different ways that museums and archival objects are returned to and made sense of in relation to place. Drawing upon experiences from different parts of Aboriginal Australia, this chapter demonstrates how objects are actively re-emplaced as part of their return. As objects are reoriented among different geographic locales, meanings are generated, and relationships are remade in the present. Going beyond simply ascribing provenance details to an object, the work of repositioning the object is often done to reaffirm and/or rebuild personal or collective ties to specific locales or sites. The return of objects and collections can, therefore, also change perceptions of contemporary landscapes and instigate new object-place-people relationships with unintended consequences. As each locale may embody a different cultural and colonial inheritance, objects often come back to familiar yet transformed places. Different Aboriginal people and groups across Australia are now grappling with the task of reconnecting returned information and objects to their foundations in place.
