Pitt Rivers Museum to return remains to Naga people
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The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford will return 39 human remains to the Naga people of Nagaland, a state in India, before the end of the year.
Laura Van Broekhoven, the museum’s director, described the handover as the largest repatriation of human remains in the museum’s history and part of a wider movement for healing and unification among the Naga.
The remains, mostly skulls, were originally collected by colonial administrators, including John Henry Hutton and James Philip Mills, between 1910 and 1940. The Forum for Naga Reconciliation, representing 39 Naga organisations, formally requested the return of 40 ancestral remains in February. Oxford University Council approved the return of 39 of those remains in July, declining one due to uncertain origins.
The museum removed all human remains from public display in 2020 and has since collaborated with Naga representatives to determine how to best care for and return the ancestors. In June of last year, a delegation of 20 Naga leaders and scholars visited the Pitt Rivers Museum to view the remains. This visit culminated in the Naga-Oxford Declaration on Repatriation, where the Naga people expressed their desire to reclaim their ancestors after decades of separation.
The Pitt Rivers Museum holds the world’s largest collection of Naga material, much of which was acquired during the colonial period.
