For the past decades, returning materials stored at heritage holding institutions to the communities where they originated has become a growing
phenomenon. In this article, the return of ethnographic visual archives is specifically discussed, combining a biographical stud y of them with the
ethnography of their return. The author conducts a critical examination of the particularities associated with this form of return and engages in
a scholarly analysis of the conceptual framework of “visual repatriation”; this is done by approaching the visual archives from the point of view
of the memories produced and practiced by the people who express an affective bond with what is represented in the images. The foundation
of this study is grounded in fieldwork conducted by the author between 2013 and 2019 in the Patiño district, Province of Formosa. The field work
consisted of discussing and collectively analyzing together with the Pilagá and creole population living there a silent film titled “Following Indian
Trails by the Pilcomayo River” (1950) by Wilhelm Hansson and Mauricio Jesperson. This filmic record is the first visual documentation of the
region and its inhabitants, shot at the beginning of the 20 th century. The work was completed through workshops, interviews, and film projections.
Based on this case study, I present several methodological reflections and ethnographic notes on what is at stake when working with returns are
presented. Special attention was paid to the convergence and divergence in readings, interpretations, and uses of the archive material within as
well as between the two groups I worked with.
