After a century in England, 39 Naga ancestral remains finally return home

It took decades of debate, a pile of paperwork and a trip across continents, but on Monday, 39 ancestors of the Naga people were finally handed back by one of the world's most famous universities.

Around thirty representatives from Nagaland, a hilly state in India's far north-east, travelled to the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford to receive the remains, most of them skulls. A formal agreement between the museum and Naga leaders was signed at the ceremony.

‘A historic moment’

Museum director Laura Van Broekhoven said the day would become a story told to future generations. She admitted the road to this point had been far from smooth, saying the return had to get past a great deal of bureaucratic obstruction.

For the Naga, the aim is simple: dignity. Community leaders say the remains will be given a "respectful rest". Plans are in place to lay them under a shared memorial in a park in Nagaland.

From display case to decolonisation

For decades, the remains sat in public view at the museum. In 2020 they were removed from display as part of what the institution called a decolonisation process.

The Pitt Rivers holds more than 6,000 objects linked to Naga culture, thought to be the biggest collection of its kind anywhere. Most arrived during British rule in India and neighbouring Myanmar, then known as Burma. Of these, 219 items are listed as human remains, added between 1910 and 1940 and gathered largely by two colonial administrators who doubled as anthropologists.

The museum itself acknowledges that items collected in this period were often seized during punitive military expeditions rather than willingly given.

Doubts over how they were taken

Thejao Vihienuo, one of the Naga leaders present, told AFP that the circumstances of the removals raise uncomfortable questions. He said it was hard to believe anyone would voluntarily hand over the skull of a father or grandfather as a present.

Anthropologists note that the Naga once practised head-hunting, taking the heads of enemies as trophies, but also kept the skulls of their own chiefs at the heart of villages, a sign of honour and remembrance.

During their trip, the delegation also met descendants of one of the anthropologists who collected the remains, an encounter that added a very human dimension to a story about history and ownership.

Not the first, but a significant one

Founded in the 19th century, the museum has previously returned human remains to indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. This latest handover covers only the 39 ancestral remains. It follows a Naga delegation's visit to Oxford in 2025, when the community formally requested their return, and the museum's announcement in September that they would go home.

The remaining Naga objects stay in Oxford, but for these 39 individuals, the journey home has finally begun.