Naga Communities Endeavor to Repatriate Ancestral Remains from UK

Last month, Ellen Konyak learned with dismay that a 19th-Century skull originating from the north-eastern Indian state of Nagaland was being offered for sale in the UK. This horned skull, belonging to a Naga tribesman, was one of thousands of objects European colonial administrators had acquired from the region. Konyak, who is part of the Naga Forum for Reconciliation (NFR) and actively working to return these human remains to their homeland, stated that the auction news caused her distress. “To see that people are still auctioning our ancestral human remains in the 21st Century was shocking,” she said. “It was very insensitive and deeply hurtful.” The Swan at Tetsworth, a UK-based antique centre that offered the skull for sale, promoted it within their “Curious Collector Sale”, with an estimated price range of £3,500 ($4,490) and £4,000 ($5,132). In addition to the skull – which came from a Belgian collection – the sale featured shrunken heads from the Jivaro people of South America and skulls from the Ekoi people of West Africa. Naga scholars and experts objected to the offering. The chief minister of Nagaland, Konyak’s home state, addressed correspondence to the Indian foreign ministry, characterizing the act as “dehumanising” and “continued colonial violence upon our people”. The auction house canceled the sale after public condemnation, but for the Naga people, the incident resurfaced recollections of their violent past, leading to renewed demands for the repatriation of their ancestral remains stored or displayed far from their homeland. Scholars propose that certain human remains were acquired as bartered items or gifts, but others may have been removed without the permission of those they belonged to. Alok Kumar Kanungo, a scholar of Naga culture, calculates that approximately 50,000 Naga objects are housed solely within the UK’s public museums and private collections. Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM), which holds the largest Naga collection, contains around 6,550 items originating from the state, including 41 human remains. The museum also possesses human remains from several other states of British India. However, in recent years, experts note that due to increasing ethical considerations regarding the collection, sale, and display of human remains, many collectors are re-evaluating their practices. Kanungo says human remains have become “white elephants” for museums. “They are no longer an object that can be disposed of or possessed by its owners; no longer a source of tourists’ money; can no longer be used to present Naga peoples as ‘uncivilised’; and of late have become an emotionally and politically charged issue.” Consequently, museums have begun repatriating human remains from communities such as the Maori tribes of New Zealand, the Mudan warriors of Taiwan, the Aboriginal people of Australia, and the Native Hawaiians. In 2019, PRM informed the BBC of the return of 22 such objects. A museum spokesperson told the BBC that the number has since increased to 35. “So far these [objects] have all been returned to Australia, New Zealand, US and Canada.” As part of an ethical review, the museum took Naga skulls off public exhibition in 2020 and moved them into archival storage. This is when FNR demanded their repatriation for the first time. The museum stated it had not yet received a formal claim from Naga descendants and that the procedures for repatriating human remains “can take between 18 months and several years, depending on the complexity of the case”. Repatriating human remains presents greater challenges than the return of artifacts. It necessitates thorough investigation to ascertain whether the items were collected ethically, to identify descendants, and to manage intricate global rules on the movement of human remains. The Naga forum established a collective named Recover, Restore and Decolonise, led by anthropologists Dolly Kikon and Arkotong Longkumer, to aid in the repatriation process. “It is a bit like detective work,” Longkumer said. “We have to sift through different layers of information and try to read between the lines to actually find out about the exact nature of the collections and where they are from.” But for the Naga people, this process transcends mere logistics. “We are dealing with human remains,” said Konyak. “It’s an international and legal process, but it’s also a spiritual one for us.” The group has been visiting communities, meeting Naga elders, holding seminars, and providing informative resources such as comic books and videos to spread awareness. They are also seeking to establish agreement on topics like the last rites of repatriated remains. Most Nagas now adhere to Christianity, but their ancestors were animists who adhered to distinct birth and death ceremonies. The group discovered that even Naga elders were uninformed that their forebears’ remains were abroad. Anthropologist and archaeologist Tiatoshi Jamir said one elder told him that this could make “the soul of their ancestors restless”. Jamir said even he was unaware of the skulls exhibited in foreign museums until he read about them in a local paper in the early 2000s. The British assumed control of the Naga territories in 1832 and, in 1873, instituted a specific authorization for visitors – called the Inner Line Permit – to strictly control access to the region. Historians say the colonial administrators suppressed all uprisings and frequently incinerated Naga settlements to pacify them, thereby obliterating many significant cultural identifiers such as paintings, engravings, and artifacts. Konyak says she has identified one of the human remains on PRM’s inventory as belonging to an individual from her own village and tribal group. “I am like, ‘Oh my goodness! It belongs to one of my ancestors’,” she told the BBC. She remains uncertain regarding the execution of final ceremonies once the remains are returned. “But we want them back as a mark of respect to our elders,” she said. “To reclaim our history. To claim our narrative.”