Dimapur: A long-awaited homecoming is taking shape for the ancestral human remains of 39 Nagas, with origins in Nagaland, held for decades in the collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM), University of Oxford. The museum has agreed to return the remains to their homeland.PRM director Prof. Laura Van Broekhoven conveyed the decision in a letter to Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) convener Rev. Wati Aier.“We hope we can now commence the work — together with the FNR, the Naga tribe hohos, and with the support of the Recover, Restore and Decolonise (RRaD) team — towards the bringing home of the Naga ancestors to their homeland,” Broekhoven wrote in the letter.At its meeting on July 13, the University of Oxford Council agreed to return 39 human remains, the letter said. However, it declined the return of one additional set of remains as its Naga origin could not be clearly established.Broekhoven contacted the FNR in 2020 to facilitate the repatriation process, RRaD coordinator and FNR member Rev. Ellen Konyak told reporters here.Following this, the FNR established the RRaD, a research initiative led by Naga academics Dolly Kikon and Arkotong Longkumer, both based in the UK, along with a network of research volunteers.The effort gained further momentum in June 2025, when a delegation of Naga tribal hoho leaders, elders, and members of the FNR and RRaD visited the Pitt Rivers Museum to see and bear witness to the ancestral remains for the first time. The visit led to the ‘Naga Oxford Declaration on Repatriation’, issued on June 13, 2025.A Naga delegation comprising tribal hoho leaders and members of the FNR and RRaD is likely to visit the museum again to formally claim claim and facilitate the return of the ancestral remains. The remains were allegedly taken away by colonial administrators decades ago.Konyak said the repatriation is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
