Homecoming of Naga Ancestors! Oxford to return 39 Naga ancestors after 80 years
The museum said that after the handover ceremony, the ancestors will return home with a Naga delegation that will include leaders and elders of several Naga tribe Hohos, along with members of the FNR and RRaD.
Total Views |
In a major cultural development for anthropologists and community leaders from Nagaland, the British Museum is going to return the 39 pieces of human remains to Nagaland after nearly 80 years. The human remains include the part of skull, a finger and a piece of skin with hair belonging to the Naga tribe.
The decision came after the university approved a restitution request by the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) and other groups. Naga Tribe was negotiating with the Pitt River Museum in Oxford for 6 years. The news of its return was announced by the museum on Monday.
The museum said that after the handover ceremony, the ancestors will return home with a Naga delegation that will include leaders and elders of several Naga tribe Hohos, along with members of the FNR and RRaD.
Remains taken during colonial rule
The remains were taken during Britain's colonial rule in India. They were largely accumulated between 1910 and 1940 by colonial administrators and anthropologists John Henry Hutton and James Philip Mills.
The Pitt Rivers Museum holds over 6,000 Naga artifacts. Nearly 700 are on display, according to the museum's website. The museum has faced charges of racism and cultural insensitivity because it displayed its famous collection of shrunken heads and other human remains.
Once in Oxford, they were cataloged as "headhunting trophies" and put on public exhibition in a display titled "Treatment of Dead Enemies," where they remained for a century until being taken down in 2020.
It should be noted that for the Nagas, the repatriation is not just about “bones and ancestral remains … It is about memory returning to where it belongs,” the community said in a statement.
“Repatriation, for the Nagas, is not simply about bones and ancestral remains finding their way back to the land, but importantly about memory returning to where it belongs,” the FNR, RRaD and Naga tribal leaders said in a joint statement.
They described the return as an “essential step” towards justice, dignity, healing and wholeness.