Returning Voices

This essay explores repatriation through the emergence of shared listening experiences. It argues that the repatriation of recorded voices is more meaningful and personal than the mere relocation of sound “objects” and more consequential than the transfer of historical media from the shelves of archival collections. The chapter focuses on case examples of repatriation from the Pacific Islands, and especially from the islands of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. An examination of individual and community listening to recordings moves research practice toward the advocacy, responsibility, and applied potential that scholars have called for in a growing body of critical work in ethnomusicology.