The work of repatriating anthropological collections that fall under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or for collections from outside of the United States, requires collaboration and consultation with and between university or museum representatives, Indigenous nations, lineal descendants, federal agencies, and national governments. In fact, the word ‘consultation’ occurs twenty-eight times in the NAGPRA regulations, but what does such consultation look like? Drawing on examples from repatriation work in UIUC collections from the United States and Ecuador, this talk demonstrates how compliance with repatriation law and best practices requires knowledge of legal codes, social protocols, and methods of collaboration at national, international, and multi-national scales.