Oxford (United Kingdom) (AFP) – The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford on Monday returned ancestral human remains to a delegation from Nagaland, a state in northeastern India, illustration of a movement pushing former colonial powers to re-examine the acquisition of objects taken from other cultures.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 18:58

Nearly 30 members of the Naga community, originally from a mountain range bordering Burma, were in Oxford for the handover of the remains of some 39 people - mainly skulls - an event described as "historic" by one of the tribal leaders, Thejao Vihienuo, as well as by the director of the museum, Laura Van Broekhoven.

The Pitt Rivers Museum - an ethnographic museum founded in the 19th century, where a host of objects, often labeled by hand, are lined up in tight rows behind glass cases - only removed all human remains from its exhibitions in 2020, much later than other museums.

After having already handed over human remains to indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, it still keeps some 2,700 human remains in its reserves today, Ms. Van Broekhoven told AFP.

It houses a total of more than 6,000 objects from Naga culture, the largest collection in the world.

These objects "were collected at a time when ethics and mentalities were different, an approach which, from today's perspective, is not without problems", she admitted.

Naga tribal leaders have united to carry out this restitution, and plan to bury the remains together, within a common memorial, explained to AFP Thejao Vihienuo, president of the public organization representing the Angami tribe.

“We will allow them to rest with respect,” said the 73-year-old man, draped in a traditional shawl.

Mr. Vihienuo had already visited Oxford last year with other members of the Naga community, as part of the long discussions which led to this "solemn moment" of restitution, explained the director of the museum.

“We have been working together on this very delicate issue for six years,” said Van Broekhoven.

- "Frequently confiscated" -

While we do not know the precise date of the skulls returned on Monday, we know that the human remains of the Naga people were transported to Oxford between approximately 1910 and 1940.

Most were collected by two colonial administrators who were also anthropologists. The museum nevertheless acknowledges on its website that they were "frequently confiscated during punitive military expeditions, rather than voluntarily ceded".

During its stay in Oxford, the Naga delegation met descendants of one of these anthropologists.

“The way in which these human remains were removed from our land raises many questions,” said Mr. Vihienuo. “I very much doubt that anyone would have wanted to give someone the skull of their father or grandfather as a gift,” he added.

Several countries and communities have in recent years requested the restitution of objects acquired by the former British or French colonial powers.

France has adopted several laws facilitating these restitutions, notably one in 2023 on human remains in public collections. In this context, she delivered to Madagascar in 2025 three skulls of victims of colonial abuses, which were kept at the Natural History Museum in Paris.

© 2026 AFP

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