Oxford University Museum Returns 39 Sets of Ancestral Remains to Naga People of India

At a ceremony held on November 9, the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University in the UK formally returned 39 sets of ancestral remains to the Naga people of India. The remains, primarily human skulls, were taken during the British colonial rule of India and Burma (now Myanmar) and have been in the museum’s collection for more than a century. A delegation of almost 30 community members from Nagaland, an Indian state bordering Myanmar, traveled to Britain for the handover.

The Pitt Rivers claims to hold the largest collection of Naga artifacts in the world, most of which were acquired by John Henry Hutton, an anthropologist and colonial administrator in the Indian Civil Service, and a second administrator/anthropologist, James Philip Mills, between 1910 and 1940. Within that collection, 219 items are listed as Naga human remains, including 39 ancestral human remains and 178 objects that contain, or may contain, human hair. (The current return concerns only the 39 ancestors.)

On its website, the museum notes that colonial “collecting” was “often bound up with the structures of colonial violence; remains and objects were frequently confiscated during punitive military expeditions, rather than freely given.” Mills, who wrote three monographs on Naga culture and practice, refers to at least one armed expedition to demand “headhunting trophies” from Pangsha village, remarking that the Pitt Rivers would thus “get some fine specimens.”

While the Naga people practiced headhunting at the time, taking the severed heads of enemies as trophies, they also kept and cared for the heads of their own chiefs. According to anthropologist Dolly Kikon (a member of Nagaland’s Lotha-Naga community, now at the University of California, Santa Cruz) one of the remains being returned is a chief’s skull.

The Pitt Rivers removed all human remains, including those of Naga people, from display in 2020. Sensing an opening, Kikon contacted the museum’s director, Laura Van Broekhoven and offered to connect her with the Naga community. The return is the culmination of the museum’s work with Naga partners, including the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) together with tribal Hohos, elders, churches and communities.

Naga tribal leaders plan to bury the remains together in a joint memorial park. “They’ve been here in a foreign land for more than a century,” said Dr Vihuto Asumi, President of the Sumî Hoho Naga tribe. “We believe that their spirits are still not at rest, so by doing this, we believe it will bring spiritual healing, not only to the ancestral remains here but to everyone who died during the headhunting days.”