Oxford museum to return Naga human remains

Oxford University's Pitt Rivers Museum will return the remains of 39 people taken during Britain's colonial era to the Naga community in northeast India.

The museum said on Monday that it was preparing the repatriation after Oxford University approved a restitution request by the Forum for Naga Reconciliation.

The request covered 40 sets of human remains. Oxford approved the return of 39 on July 13, concluding that one specimen did not have clear provenance as Naga.

The remains were collected in the early 20th century by British colonial administrators. Some remained on public display until 2020.

Museum director Laura Van Broekhoven said the remains had been away from their homeland “for far too long”.

The Forum for Naga Reconciliation and other Naga organisations welcomed the agreement, saying repatriation was about ancestral remains returning to the land and “memory returning to where it belongs”.

The museum said it was working with the Naga community to agree a date for a handover ceremony, which has not yet been set.

The agreement is part of a wider international movement to repatriate artefacts and human remains acquired by Western institutions during the colonial era.