This paper considers the ontologies of relational repatriation, cultural reclamation and reorientation from past to present of ancestor photos by Aboriginal Elders, knowledge holders and their families. It leans into questions about cultural custodianship rights and the renewal of family kinship responsibilities to ancestors and kin, pictorially confined to repository collections of 19th and early 20th Century photographs. It engages with dialectical approaches to heritage reclamation and attends to the dialogic ethics and morals of an intimate social relatedness that does not separate history from meaningful experience, cultural authority from emotions. This paper explores cultural perceptions of identity and belonging animated by descendant family members when experiencing ancestors and kin pictured in photographs. Closely examined are the complexities of these interrelationships and the energetic social and political desire of Elders, knowledge holders, and their families to make something happen as part of contemporary knowledge practices, and for the continuity of collective memory and legacy – knowing the self through remembering ancestors and kin in relationship to country, each other, and the acknowledged power of oral narratives throughout time.

本文考虑了原住民长者、知识持有者及其家人的祖先照片的关系遣返、文化复兴和从过去到现在的重新定位的本体论。它倾向于关注文化监护权和更新家庭对祖先和亲属的亲属责任的问题，图片仅限于 19 世纪和 20 世纪早期照片的存储库收藏。它采用辩证法来修复遗产，并关注一种亲密社会关系的对话伦理和道德，这种关系不会将历史与有意义的经验、文化权威与情感分开。本文探讨了后代家庭成员在体验照片中描绘的祖先和亲属时对身份和归属感的文化认知。