Digital repatriation: Innovation or illusion?

Ahmad Mohammed writes: Immersive technologies and digital repatriation are reshaping heritage practice—opening up new possibilities for connection, access, and repair. But are we asking the right questions?

What’s hashtagtroubling:
• Digital – decolonization: Offering scans while retaining physical artifacts risks reducing justice to a PR gesture.
• Control still resides with institutions: Even in digital form, heritage is often mediated, hosted, and curated by those who removed it.
• Open access can mean open exploitation: Sacred and sensitive objects can be downloaded, printed, and commercialized with little regard for community protocols.

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