Digital repatriation

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Digital repatriation is the return of cultural heritage items in a digital format to the communities from which they originated. The term originated from within anthropology and typically referred to the creation of digital photographs of ethnographic material, which would then be made available to members of the originating culture.^[1] However, the term has also been applied to museum, library, and archives collections,^[2] and can refer not only to digital photographs of items but also to digital collections and virtual exhibits including 3D scans and audio recordings.^[3] Intangible cultural heritage, which includes traditional skills and knowledge, can also be digitally repatriated to communities.^[4]

Digital repatriation is becoming increasingly relevant as more cultural institutions make their collections available online.^[5] This increased access is sometimes at odds with the desires of the originating culture since it limits their ability to curate and define terms of access to their cultural materials.^[6] Many cultural institutions are making efforts to involve communities in collection display and description, with recent efforts of cultural heritage-specific institutions to return control and access of digital materials to original cultures.^[7][8] This has led to the development of digital software and tools to help achieve these goals.^[9]