The Iowa City Foreign Relations Council invites you to join them for a thought-provoking and timely panel discussion featuring esteemed representatives from the Stanley Museum of Art, the Pentacrest Museums, and the Office of the State Archaeologist.
Together, they will explore the University of Iowa’s leadership and evolving practices in the restitution and repatriation of African and Indigenous American cultural objects. This conversation sheds light on the critical role of institutions in addressing how objects became part of institutional collections and fostering meaningful dialogue about cultural heritage and accountability.
As the opening event of a three-day Mellon-funded symposium, this session invites you to engage with experts at the forefront of this transformative work, setting the stage for deeper reflection and action.
Johnathan Buffalo (Historic Preservation Director, Meskwaki Nation) is the Director of the Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museumfor the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (The Meskwaki Nation). He lives at the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in history.
Cory K. Gundlach, PhD, is a curator of African art, professor of museum studies and art history, and director of the African Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He began his museum career in 1998 at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California, where he was involved in his first repatriation project with the Wiyot Tribe of the Humboldt Bay region. Later working at the Fort Collins Museum (Colorado), his second repatriation project involved the return of human remains to representatives of the Cree Nation of North America.
Peju Layiwola, Ph.D, is a visual artist and researcher whose art and writing focus on restitution, history, and memory related to the siege of Benin in 1897 by British Soldiers and trading partners. Layiwola’s exhibition, Benin 1897.com: Art and the Restitution Question (2010), was the first solo exhibition to focus on the looting of Benin art in Nigeria and was instrumental in bringing back public discussion on restitution in Nigeria.
Lara Noldner is the Bioarchaeology Director at the Office of the State Archaeologist, University of Iowa. Her primary responsibility is seeing to the protection of ancient human remains and burial sites in Iowa. This means working closely with Native American advisors, documenting known burial sites, investigating any inadvertent exposures of ancient human skeletal remains, working with developers so that known burial sites are not disturbed by construction projects, and promoting the importance of burial site stewardship. She also sees to the OSA’s compliance with NAGPRA and Iowa law in the repatriation and reburial of ancestors with descendant communities.
Cindy Opitz, Director of Research Collections at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History and Old Capitol Museum, oversees the curation, conservation, digitization, and management of 180,000+ zoological specimens and cultural objects at the second-oldest US natural history museum west of the Mississippi River and a National Historic Landmark building. Ms. Opitz also trains and mentors collection interns and volunteers, teaches museum object preservation in the UI Museum Studies Certificate Program, and serves as a volunteer in the Iowa Museums, Archives, and Libraries Emergency Response Team and as a National Heritage Responder.
Ciraj Rassool, PhD is Senior Professor of Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and director of the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies. He has published widely on changing old museums & making new museums, race in museums, restitution, political movements and the politics of nonracialism. He served on the boards of the District Six Museum & Iziko Museums of South Africa and is a member of the South African National Advisory Board for Restitution and Repatriation.