Since the closing decades of the twentieth century, museums have increasingly developed more open and collaborative relationships with members of source communities, typically lineal or cultural descendants of the people from whom particular museum collections originated. Histories of encounter, colonialism, and anthropology have highlighted the numerous overlapping and often contradictory historical contexts and trajectories through which objects entered museum collections. For many source community members, reconnecting with objects and information associated with ancestors and an often fragmented past can assist with personal and community regeneration and can provide a source of inspiration for the present and the future. Working with members of source communities has both challenged and revitalized the museum, resulting in transcultural debate, extraordinary exchanges of knowledge, and innovative collaborative projects.