Oxford to return 39 Naga ancestors, handover date being finalised

London,UPDATED: Sep 8, 2026 20:08 IST

The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford has said it is working with representatives from Nagaland to fix a date for the handover ceremony of the remains of 39 Naga ancestors, after which they will begin their journey back home. A Naga delegation from India is being planned to accompany the remains.

The museum holds the largest collection of Naga material in the world, much of it gathered by colonial administrators in the early twentieth century. Among the collection are ancestral remains of Naga people taken during the colonial era and kept at the museum for decades. The Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) sought the return of this ancestral heritage earlier this year, and the University of Oxford later approved the return of 39 of the 40 remains covered by the claim.

The museum said it has been working with the FNR and the RRaD (Recover, Restore and Decolonise) team since 2020, along with tribal Hohos, elders, churches and communities across the Naga homeland, to decide how the ancestors should be cared for and returned. "In February 2026, the University of Oxford received a claim from the FNR for 40 ancestral remains kept in the Pitt Rivers Museum. The claim followed the university's procedures for the return of cultural objects and was agreed by the Oxford University Council on July 13, 2026," the museum said. The council approved the return of 39 ancestral remains and declined the return of one remain, saying it did not have a "clear provenance as Naga".

Professor Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, said: "It has been humbling to be part of this process, to witness the effect of collective consultation led by FNR and the RRaD team. Especially inspiring is the beautiful way that collective work and shared action kept engagement growing to become a Naga-wide movement of healing and unification. I feel honoured that we walked alongside our partners to find the path to return for these 39 Naga ancestors, who have been away from their homeland for far too long."

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. The Naga ancestors had remained on display at the museum until 2020, when all human remains were removed from display.

The Naga-Oxford Declaration states: "As Nagas, we do so in a united voice, with mutual respect and consensus and to offer you a dignified rest, establishing a Naga monument of healing and peace for all generations, symbolising the oneness of the Nagas. We extend our solidarity to fellow Indigenous Peoples across the world who seek to undertake a similar journey of repatriation in the hope of bringing decolonisation, justice and peace, not just for ourselves but for humanity." Official records show the first Naga ancestral remains were given to the museum more than a century ago by John Henry Hutton, a colonial administrator in the Indian Civil Service and an anthropologist. Most of the remains now in the collection were brought to Oxford by Hutton and another administrator-anthropologist, James Philip Mills, between 1910 and 1940. The return of the 39 remains was supported by the Homebound Project, which funds the material repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural belongings from UK institutions to Indigenous communities.

The planned handover will mark the return of 39 Naga ancestral remains from Oxford to Nagaland after decades in the museum's collection, following consultations with Naga groups and Oxford's approval of the repatriation claim.

With PTI Inputs

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