June 16, 2025 – Oxford, UK / Nagaland, IndiaIn a powerful push to reclaim their heritage, tribes from India’s northeastern state of Nagaland have formally urged the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford to return ancestral human remains taken during the colonial era and kept in British collections for over a century.During recent talks held in Oxford, Naga representatives called for the repatriation of skulls and other human remains, which were removed from their communities under British colonial rule and later used as anthropological displays or for academic study.“Our ancestors deserve dignity, not display,” one Naga delegate said. “We are here to bring them home.”The Pitt Rivers Museum, which houses one of the world’s most extensive collections of ethnographic artifacts and human remains, holds numerous items identified as originating from Nagaland. These remains, once exhibited as part of Victorian-era anthropology exhibits, were removed from public view in 2020 amid growing global pressure to decolonize museum spaces.India Joins Global Repatriation MovementThe Naga demand is part of a broader global movement for cultural and ancestral repatriation, echoing similar efforts by Indigenous communities across Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Governments and tribal authorities around the world are increasingly pressing Western institutions to return items taken without consent or under colonial coercion.Historians say many of these remains were acquired as so-called “trophies” or curiosities, often without the knowledge or approval of the communities they came from. Their presence in Western museums is now widely seen as a symbol of imperial exploitation.Oxford’s ResponseA spokesperson for the Pitt Rivers Museum confirmed that dialogue with Indian representatives is ongoing, and said the institution is committed to ethical review and cultural sensitivity in handling all repatriation requests.“We recognize the deep significance of these remains to their communities of origin,” the museum said in a statement. “We are working in good faith toward resolution.”While no timeline has been set for the return, the talks have been described as a “constructive and hopeful beginning” by those involved.Cultural Justice in FocusFor India’s Naga tribes, bringing home their ancestors is not only about historical justice but about restoring spiritual balance and cultural dignity.“Our fight is not against science or history,” said one elder. “It’s for respect—for the souls that still belong to the land they came from.”As demands for restitution gather global momentum, India’s push for the return of Naga ancestral remains could serve as a pivotal case in reshaping how museums around the world confront their colonial legacies.
