A Naga delegation comprising elders and leaders from various Naga Tribe Hohos, along with members of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) and the Recover, Restore, and Decolonise (RRaD) team, met with the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) at the University of Oxford as part of a week-long initiative to repatriate ancestral human remains, marking a significant step in a Naga-led process of reconciliation, healing, and the future care of their heritage.
The Naga delegation was welcomed into the museum by Director, Professor Dr Laura van Broekhoven and members of her staff from PRM.
“It has been a long journey to get to this moment”, said Prof van Broekhoven, as she welcomed the delegation. “I am very pleased we are now at this moment of the process, that we were able to welcome all of you to Oxford”, she said.
The Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) in Oxford, which houses 213 human remains of Nagas among other artefacts from across the globe, had in 2020 announced it would remove the human remains and other “insensitive exhibits” from the display.
Naga anthropologist Dolly Kikon and Naga social scientist Dr. Arkotong Longkumer, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, approached Pitt Rivers Museum Director Laura van Broekhoven, who subsequently invited the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) to facilitate the repatriation process.
The remains, taken from Nagaland and other Naga-abited areas over a century ago by British colonial forces for anthropological display, are now being returned as part of an important step toward healing, justice, and cultural restoration.
Prof. van Broekhoven said, “We know that this week will be one where we will both feel grief and sadness when looking back on that past, and also where hope is possible as we work towards reconciliation and healing in the future,” adding, “I hope we can support and hold each other throughout this process.”
Reverend Dr. Ellen Konyak Jamir, coordinator of Recover, Restore and Decolonise (RRaD) and member of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), said the Naga delegation had arrived with “hearts heavy with history.”
She described their presence as part of a sacred journey that began five years ago, aimed at repatriating the physical remains of Naga ancestors “who were taken away and have resided within the walls of PRM for generations.”
Acknowledging the complex and painful colonial past that led to their presence here, Dr Konyak- Jamir remarked, “We recognise and express our sincere appreciation for the PRM’s commitment to change, and ethical stewardship.”
She praised their courage in confronting complicated histories and their dedication to the process of repatriation.
“We come with hope in the process, may this journey appease our ancestors and our communities,” Dr Konyak-Jamir said, as she requested Dr Visier Sanyü, an elder from FNR, to share the Indigenous chant before the process began.
Dr. Sanyü’s chant, titled “Our Ancestor,” evoked the parting of the Naga ancestor from the creator, concluding with a hopeful plea for the ancestor’s reunion with the creator and the healing of historical wounds.
Speaking on behalf of the Naga people, Thejao Vihienuo, President of the Angami Public Organisation, reminded the gathering of the deep-rooted history of the Nagas, who have lived between the Brahmaputra and Chindwin rivers for generations.
“We have embarked on this historic journey, not only for the repatriation of our ancestors but also as a journey towards the process of decolonisation,” he said.
He further acknowledged that the ancestral remains displayed in the museum had, in their silence, borne witness to the history of the Naga people.
“We are proud of these ancestors and are here to pay our respectful homage to them,” he said, emphasising, “Nagas are aware we cannot undo the past. But…we are confident that this process of repatriation will go a long way in healing the wounds of all the people involved.”
The Naga delegation was then granted access for the first time since their removal from public display to the room where the ancestral remains had been placed specifically for them.
Chanting an incantation to the Blue Sky Father and Mother Earth, Nepuni Piku of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation invoked the name of the Almighty and announced the delegation’s presence before the ancestral remains to pay homage and respect.
He sought the goodwill of the ancestors and asked for their blessings upon those who had come to take them home. Shawls were then laid in tribute, marking the close of the opening day’s events.
The delegation will remain in Oxford for the week to further strengthen the process of reclaiming Naga history and repatriating the ancestral human remains.
Scholar A.K. Kanungo estimates that over 50,000 Naga objects are held in public and private collections across 43 museums in the United Kingdom. These include weapons, shields, headgear, and “numerous human skulls,” as noted in his 2014 essay.
The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford alone houses around 8,000 Naga artefacts. According to Joanna Cole, assistant curator of object collections and provenance, much of this collection was acquired between the 1910s and 1930s, primarily through J.P. Mills, a colonial ethnographer who spent years in the Naga Hills and Assam, and John Henry Hutton, a colonial administrator.
In 2020, the Pitt Rivers Museum approached the Forum for Naga Reconciliation to facilitate community dialogue on the “future care and return” of Naga ancestral human remains. That same year, the Recover, Restore and Decolonise (RRaD) research team was established in collaboration with Naga scholars Dolly Kikon and Dr. Arkotong Longkumer.
Earlier in 2024, outrage erupted after a “19th-century horned Naga human skull” was listed for auction by The Swan at Tetsworth, an antiques centre in the UK, as part of The Curious Collector sale.
The skull, valued at £3,500–£4,000, was listed alongside other human remains such as “shrunken heads” and skulls from South America and West Africa, as well as manuscripts, jewellery, and ceramics. The Forum for Naga Reconciliation strongly condemned the auction, calling it an “inhumane and violent practice” that indigenous ancestral human remains continue to be treated as “collector’s items in the 21st century.”
 at the University of Oxford as part of a week-long initiative to repatriate ancestral human remains.){kind=link}