Oxford University museum to return remains of 39 Naga people to India
The Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom has agreed to return to India the remains of 39 people from the Naga community, taken during British colonial rule. The university approved a restitution request submitted by the Naga Reconciliation Forum and other organizations.
As CBS News reports, the request concerned 40 sets of human remains. In July, the university agreed to return 39 of them, as the origin of one set from the Naga community has not been clearly established.
Preparations for the ceremony
The museum said it is working jointly with representatives of the Naga community to agree on a date for the ceremony to hand over the remains. It has not yet been determined.
Museum director Laura van Broekhoven told AFP that the remains had been far from home for too long. Representatives of the Naga Reconciliation Forum stressed that, for their community, repatriation is not only about returning the remains of ancestors, but also about returning memory to where it belongs.
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Collection and previous decisions
The Pitt Rivers Museum, which specializes in anthropology, ethnology and archaeology, holds more than 6,000 Naga objects. Ellen Konyak Jamir, coordinator of the Recover Restore and Decolonise research initiative, told MorungExpress that returning these objects is a complex process and is currently not their main priority.
In 2020, the museum removed 120 human remains from display, including tsantsa shrunken heads, Naga trophy heads and the mummy of an Egyptian child. This was part of broader work to decolonize the collections. The museum had previously faced accusations of racism and cultural insensitivity over its display of human remains.
The University of Oxford's decision is part of international efforts to return objects and human remains acquired by Western institutions during the colonial era. Earlier this year, the University of Edinburgh returned the skulls of six Muscogee people in the United States, while in 2022 London's Horniman Museum returned 72 objects to Nigeria, including 12 Benin Bronzes.
