This understanding of territorial and ancestral responsibility is something that the scientific research at Upward Sun River has engaged with, at least in part.

The ongoing consultation with Athabascan communities has been described by the researchers involved as a genuine and productive relationship, shaped by mutual respect for different forms of knowledge and different understandings of what the Upward Sun River site means and what the research conducted there implies.

The resolution to these questions — the finding of the appropriate balance between scientific access to irreplaceable ancient material and the rights and interests of Indigenous communities whose ancestors are being studied — is not fully achieved at Upward Sun River or anywhere else.

But the effort to work toward that balance, with genuine engagement from both researchers and communities, represents the best practice currently available and a model that subsequent projects are working to build on.