Philippine Studies Conference 2025: Repatriating Philippine heritage

The 2025 Philippine Studies Conference at SOAS engages with the complex theme of repatriation.

Under the title “Repatriating Philippine Heritage: Transnational Perspectives on Objects, Archives, and Memory,” this year’s conference explores the material return, digital reunification, and recontextualization of Philippine artefacts, manuscripts, and sound heritage held in institutions abroad or separated from their originating cultures.

We are welcoming three keynote speakers: Dr. Hilmar Farid Setiadi, former Director General of Culture for the Republic of Indonesia; Jennifer Tauli Corpuz, newly appointed member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII); and Marian Pastor Roces, independent curator, critic, and public intellectual whose work on Philippine contemporary art, textiles, and cultural politics has been influential both nationally and internationally.

The three-day conference will feature plenary sessions and a wide range of panels, bringing together speakers to discuss archival returns, museum restitution, community-led practices, and innovative approaches to digital repatriation through emerging technologies. The themes we will explore include:

• Case studies of ongoing, successful or contested repatriation efforts in the Philippines (nation to nation or between regions) of Philippine artefacts and manuscripts from global museums, natural archives, and private collections
• Comparative perspectives from Austronesian-speaking peoples of Southeast Asia, highlighting similar cases and shared challenges.
• Local perspectives on repatriation, restitution, and the right to cultural heritage
• Problematization of bilateral nation-to-nation repatriations vs the quest for rematriation or grassroots engagement with recipients as close to cultural originators as possible
• Community-led initiatives in cultural heritage documentation and preservation
• The role of museums, archives, and universities in facilitating repatriation and decolonizing collections
• Ethical and legal challenges in returning cultural materials, including international policies and agreements
• The impact of digital technologies on access, representation, and ownership of heritage objects
• Digital repatriation and virtual reunification of cultural heritage through digitization projects
• The intersection of repatriation with contemporary artistic and curatorial practices
• Identity politics and perspectives on the diaspora in relation to heritage kept in overseas institutions

A complete list of abstracts and speakers is available on the conference website. 

Registration

For those who wish to attend the conference as guest participants, there are no registration fees. However, we kindly ask that you register using the link above.

For further inquiries, please contact philippinestudies@soas.ac.uk. We look forward to engaging in critical discussions on repatriation and cultural heritage in the Philippine and Island Southeast Asian context.

Contact

• Organiser: Philippine Studies at SOAS
• Contact: philippinestudies@soas.ac.uk

Header image: Image depicting lime holders within CAS Mezzanine storeroom. Selected for use on the homepage of the Philippine Heritage Collections interactive web portal. (c) Field Museum of Natural History - CC BY-NC 4.0