This paper examines the ethical, intellectual, and practical issues surrounding a collaborative digital restitution project known by the acronym SAWA (Savoirs autochtones wayana-apalaï). SAWA’s main objective is cultural valorization and revitalization, notably by giving the Amerindian populations of French Guyana easier access to audiovisual and photographic archives, as well as to collections of objects representative of their culture. The project is carried out in active collaboration with Amerindian experts who regularly travel to metropolitan France to work on the portal (the principal restitution tool), making decisions regarding its conception and design, as well as rights of access to audio and audiovisual data, and to study recordings and objects related to a significant but highly endangered collective ritual (marake in French, in Wayana: eputop). Finally, SAWA includes an epistemological component, reflecting on indigenous control of the archives concerning them, on the practices of collaborative restitution, and on their incidence on the transmission of knowledge and know-how.
