Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the issues around the repatriation of ethnographic research to source communities through the case of a ceremonial canoe from Solomon Islands, documented in the 1960s and about to be published as a bilingual book written in partnership between academic and local authors.

Paper long abstract:

The people of Malaita in Solomon Islands have long been sensitive to the colonial appropriation of their cultural heritage but appreciative of its preservation and return by ethnographic publication. This paper discusses some issues raised by repatriating documentation by the late Pierre Maranda of the last ceremonial canoe built in Lau lagoon in the 1960s. Plans to publish his data as a heavily illustrated bilingual La-English book seem appropriate and acceptable, following precedents set by my own publications on Malaitan culture. However, Maranda's research, while supported by community leaders, also raised accusations of theft and its publication fifty years later has been complicated by disagreements over inherited rights in ancestral knowledge. Resolving such issues has required active collaboration between academic and local authors and advisors. Making such books available to their source communities is another problem for academic anthropology to address.