A Naga delegation received 39 ancestral remains from Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum. Their repatriation marks a significant step towards healing, unity and decolonisation.Since 2020, the museum has worked with the FNR and RRaD teams, tribal Hohos, elders, churches and communities across the Naga homeland to decide how the ancestors should be cared for and returned.
The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford has handed over the remains of 39 Naga ancestors for their return to India, news agency Press Trust of India reported.A 30-member delegation from Nagaland received the remains at a ceremony in Oxford on Monday. Most of the remains are skulls and will be given a "respectful rest", according to Naga tribal leaders, who plan to bury them beneath a joint memorial in a park in Nagaland."I feel honoured that we walked alongside our partners to find the path to return for these 39 Naga ancestors, who have been away from their homeland for far too long," said Professor Laura Van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum.The museum holds the world's largest collection of Naga material, much of it gathered by colonial administrators in the early 20th century.
It includes the remains of Naga people taken during the colonial era and held at the museum for decades. The Forum for Naga Reconciliation approached the museum earlier this year to seek the return of the ancestral remains. "It has been humbling to be part of this process, to witness the effect of collective consultation led by FNR and the RRaD (Recover, Restore and Decolonise) team.
Especially inspiring is the beautiful way that collective work and shared action kept engagement growing to become a Naga-wide movement of healing and unification," Van Broekhoven said.Since 2020, the museum has worked with the FNR and RRaD teams, tribal Hohos, elders, churches and communities across the Naga homeland to decide how the ancestors should be cared for and returned, according to PTI. "In February 2026, the University of Oxford received a claim from the FNR for 40 ancestral remains kept in the Pitt Rivers Museum. The claim followed the university's procedures for the return of cultural objects and was agreed by the Oxford University Council on July 13, 2026," the museum said.The council approved the return of 39 ancestral remains but declined to return one other remain because it did not have a "clear provenance as Naga"."Following this decision, the Pitt Rivers Museum has been working closely with the Nagas to agree on a date for the handover ceremony.
After the ceremony, the ancestors will finally return home, accompanied by a Naga delegation, including leaders and elders of several Naga tribe Hohos, together with members of the FNR and RRaD," the museum said.The remains were displayed at the museum until 2020, when it removed all human remains from public display.The Naga-Oxford Declaration said: "As Nagas, we do so in a united voice, with mutual respect and consensus and to offer you a dignified rest, establishing a Naga monument of healing and peace for all generations, symbolising the oneness of the Nagas."It added: "We extend our solidarity to fellow Indigenous Peoples across the world who seek to undertake a similar journey of repatriation in the hope of bringing decolonisation, justice and peace, not just for ourselves but for humanity."According to official records cited by PTI, the first Naga ancestral remains were given to the Oxford museum more than a century ago by John Henry Hutton, a colonial administrator in the Indian Civil Service and an anthropologist. Most of the Naga remains in the collection were brought to Oxford by Hutton and another administrator-anthropologist, James Philip Mills, between 1910 and 1940.The return was supported by the Homebound Project, which funds the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural belongings from UK institutions to Indigenous communities.
The 39 Naga ancestors will now be taken to India and laid to rest beneath a joint memorial in Nagaland.- EndsWith PTI Inputs