Colonial archives are being transformed into sites of Indigenous cultural revitalisation. The project ‘Ancestors’ Words: Noongar letter writing in government archives, 1860-1960’ seeks to renew Noongar storytelling about who we are and where we come from by returning letters written by Noongar people in government archives to descendants as living cultural heritage. This essay explores the practice of returning cultural heritage in this project as a case study of Noongar research methodologies.

Dr Elfie Shiosaki is Noongar and Yawuru academic and storyteller from the southwest region of Australia, leading community education about human rights through her award-winning Indigenous storytelling practices. Since completing a PhD in nation-building in 2015, she has consolidated her research into three key areas: histories of advocacy by Indigenous people for rights and self-determination; Indigenous understandings of rights; and the significance of Indigenous storytelling for rights discourses.