Oxford Museum Returns Ancestral Naga Skulls to India From Colonial Era

The University of Oxford has officially returned thirty-nine colonial-era human remains belonging to the Naga community in India. A delegation consisting of around thirty people from Nagaland attended a formal handover ceremony at the Pitt Rivers Museum on Monday. Most of the repatriated human remains are skulls that were taken during British colonial rule and displayed at the Oxford museum for decades before being removed from public view in 2020. The Pitt Rivers Museum currently holds over six thousand objects associated with Naga culture in its extensive collection. The returned remains are now being transported back to India for a respectful burial. Tribal leaders in Nagaland have arranged a dedicated site at the Naga Solidarity Park to construct a joint memorial for the repatriated ancestors.