Dr. Holly Cusack-McVeigh is an associate professor of anthropology and museum studies in the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI). She holds appointments as a public scholar of collections and community curation and as an adjunct associate professor of Native American and Indigenous studies. She also serves as a research affiliate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North. Her research focuses on cultural heritage, repatriation, looting, art theft, toxic heritage, community collaboration and sense of place.
With the support of the 2025-2026 Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship, Dr. Cusack-McVeigh’s project builds on her prior research and expertise to investigate the challenges, legal processes and ethical practices of repatriation in three or more settler-colonial contexts, namely Canada, Haiti, and New Zealand. In spring 2026 she will return to New Zealand as a visiting scholar in the Repatriation Department at Te Papa National Museum. She will deliver academic and public presentations for the repatriation teams at museums in British Columbia and Manitoba, Canada. She is also continuing her collaborative work to support ongoing repatriation efforts in Haiti. These collaborations will focus on the immense challenges surrounding international repatriation. Such challenges include insufficient provenance, lack of cultural and geographic affiliation, a lack of legal protections at the national/international level, the absence of records documenting chemical/toxic treatments, and lack of community participation in decision-making. The issues associated with returning chemically treated cultural items to Indigenous communities are complex and, in the wake of a colonial past, represent yet another wave of injustice.
The IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship is not only timely in terms of Cusack-McVeigh’s own career advancement, but also in terms of current momentum at the national and international level as Indigenous communities call for greater accountability from universities, museums and government agencies. In collaboration with her colleagues worldwide, it offers an opportunity to make a lasting impact on repatriation efforts by fostering dialogue among stakeholders, raising public awareness, and strengthening legal frameworks to uphold basic human rights.