AANIKOOBIJIGAN [Ancestor/Great Grandparent/Great Grandchild]

Is archeology a crime? Based on the documentary AANIKOOBIJIGAN [Ancestor/Great Grandparent/Great Grandchild], there’s an argument to be made that it often is. In the film, Ojibway brother directing team Adam and Zack Khalil reveal the ongoing commitment by native populations to repatriate the hundreds of thousands of their ancestors’ bones, and give them a proper burial. Laws about returning indigenous bones are on their side, but with all the red tape and defensive museum and college archive officials working against them, getting their ancestors back is harder than you’d imagine. What tribal representative and leaders see as desecration of their relations, museum specialists and archeologists see as the important study of research objects.