Documentary tracks Indigenous efforts to recover ancestors’ remains from museums and universities

The documentary Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (2026), directed by Adam Khalil and Zach Khalil, follows Indigenous efforts to repatriate ancestors’ remains from US museums and universities and recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film centers on a dispute between Michigan State University and the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance (Macpra), culminating in a reburial ceremony. It also traces the historical roots of collecting Indigenous remains, referencing Thomas Jefferson’s 1784 excavation of an Indigenous burial mound and the later use of remains in discredited fields such as eugenics and phrenology. Interviewees in the film, including Gun Lake Potawotami Tribe preservation officer Sydney Martin and University of Massachusetts scholar Sam Redman, argue that institutions must return remains regardless of how they were acquired.

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