Community-Engaged Experiences in Conservation and Research on Indigenous Heritage

Cecilia Benedetti is a Researcher at the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and a Professor at the School of Philosophy and Arts, University of Buenos Aires. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Buenos Aires. She has researched about cultural heritage, material culture, diversity and sustainable development with Indigenous communities of northern Argentina for more than twenty years. She has published the book La diversidad como recurso. Producción artesanal chané destinada a la comercialización e identidad and numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is currently a Guest Scholar at the Getty Conservation Institute. Previously, she acted as a Visiting Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2019) and a Guest Researcher at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin (2016 and 2018), funded by DAAD and CONICET.   

Ellen Pearlstein is a founding faculty member and Professor Emerita in the graduate UCLA/Getty Conservation Program, where she incorporated Indigenous instruction into the understanding and care of California basketry and featherwork. Her publications include the book Conservation of Featherwork from Central and South America, articles about feather regalia, coloration, light aging, Peruvian keros and their colorants, Indigenous basketry materials, and conservation pedagogy. Her book devoted to Indigenous Collections Conservation and Care in the Getty Readings in Conservation series is due out in 2026. She is a core contributor to the School for Advanced Research Guidelines for Collaboration. Ellen directed the Andrew W. Mellon Opportunity for Diversity in Conservation and was PI for the NEH Preservation of Tribal Cultural Materials grant. She is a Keck Prize awardee, and a 2022 recipient of a Rome Prize for the study of collaborative conservation approaches to Americas’ collections in European museums.   

Kararaina Te Ira

Kararaina Te Ira (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Hinemihi, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Hineuru, Ngāti Hikairo, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Kuia, me Rangitāne o Wairau) is a museum director, textile and objects conservator, and curator specialising in art history and Indigenous cultural heritage. She is the founder of Penapena Taonga and works extensively with iwi and hapū across Aotearoa to strengthen culturally grounded collections care, governance, and curatorial practice. Her work centres on kaupapa Māori approaches that uphold whakapapa, relational accountability, and intergenerational transmission of knowledge.

Kararaina is a member of ICOMOS New Zealand, the New Zealand Conservators of Cultural Materials, and Kāhui Kaitiaki. Her practice and writing contribute to national and international conversations on Indigenous conservation and community led heritage care.

Thiago Puglieri is a chemist whose research focuses on Indigenous plant-based colorants and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). His work combines historical and cultural investigations with scientific and technological analyses at the intersection of art history, cultural heritage conservation, and community engagement. At the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Puglieri teaches and advises students in both the Department of Art History and the UCLA/Getty IDP in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Before joining UCLA in 2022, he was a professor in Brazil for seven years. He has held various positions and cooperated with national and international institutions, being a scholar at the Getty Research Institute (2024–2025), a visiting researcher at the Getty Conservation Institute (2019–2020), and the vice president of the National Association of Research in Heritage Science and Technology (ANTECIPA, Brazil, 2021-2022).

Stavroula Golfomitsou (FIIC) joined Getty in 2022 and is responsible for the Conservation Institute's work in movable heritage and collections, strengthening existing initiatives, forging new partnerships, and developing future projects and areas of work. She earned her PhD in Conservation of Metals from the University of London and her undergraduate degree in Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art from the Technological Educational Institute of Athens. Most recently, she was a senior lecturer in conservation and coordinator of the undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in the Department of Conservation of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Before that she was a lecturer and coordinator of the Master of Science in Conservation Studies at UCL Qatar. She was a member of the IIC Council until 2020. She sits on the editorial board of Studies in Conservation, Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies, and Metalla, and is on the scientific committee of the ICOM-CC Metals working group. 

Ana Pastor Pérez holds a PhD and an MA in Cultural Heritage Management and Museology from the University of Barcelona, a degree in Archaeological Conservation from the ESCRBC of Madrid, and a degree in History from the Autonomous University of Madrid. In 2011, she participated in ICCROM's course "Reducing Risks to Cultural Heritage," developing a holistic view of research and practice. Her PhD focused on social archaeological conservation, integrating ethnographic techniques and sustainable conservation strategies. Before joining the Conservation Institute, she worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, leading different community-based projects. At the Conservation Institute, she works with archaeological collections to fill knowledge gaps and highlight conservation work from an inclusive and contextualized perspective.