The repatriation of Naga ancestral remains marks the beginning of a socio-cultural shift where Nagas reclaim their dignity, reconcile their divisions, and reimagine a future.
Forum for Naga Reconciliation
On September 5, 2026, The New York Times broke the news announcing to the world: English Museum to Repatriate Colonial-Era Human Remains to the Indigenous Naga People. It highlighted the decision as a profound act of cultural reconciliation, framing it as a triumph over colonial wrongs that touch longstanding generational wounds. Professor Dr. Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford told the NYT the process was a “Naga-wide movement of healing and unification.” She also informed the Agence France-Presse (AFP):“The remains have been away from their homeland for far too long.” AFP, headquartered in Paris and founded in 1835, is the world’s oldest news agency, underscoring the global significance of this announcement.
Various reputed media organisations followed with extensive coverage. The Print wrote on the ‘Naga Model,’ while the Times of India said the long-awaited homecoming is taking shape for the ancestral remains to return to their homeland. The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), based in New York, reported that “the agreement forms part of a wider international movement to repatriate artefacts and human remains by Western institutions taken during the colonial era” (September 8, 2026). Times of Malta(September 7, 2026), and The Guardian (September 10, 2026) covered the landmark decision and supplementary reports appeared in Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha(September 12, 2026), Arab News (September 12, 2026), the BBC (September 12, 2026), and Yahoo News Singapore (September 8, 2026) among others. Speaking to Euronews (September 7, 2026), Professor Van Broekhoven described the process as “humbling,” acknowledging the moral weight of returning the remains.
For six years, the Naga people, through the Recover, Restore and Decolonize team of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR-RRaD) liaised between the Pitt Rivers Museum and the FNR-RRaD team. The resolve and imagination of the Naga Tribe Hohos have brought this journey thus far. The repatriation of ancestral remains is part of the Naga struggle for common belonging.
The Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) made a decisive paradigm shift by resolving to no longer display human remains. They were removed from exhibition and stored away, creating the context for dialogue with the FNR. Importantly, the PRM is not a British government institution, just as the FNR is not a governmental body. In her recorded message, Professor Van Broekhoven offered an apology to the Naga people for the colonial administrators’ removal of human remains from their ancestral homeland and their display as “objects” of anthropological interest, classified under derogatory categories such as “primitive,” “savages,” and “head hunters.”
At the heart of repatriation lies the fundamental issue of human rights, dignity, and restorative justice. For centuries, indigenous remains were collected without consent under the guise of colonial racial science and anthropology. The Naga repatriation is a profound moral effort to correct these historical wrongs and return control of belonging to its rightful land.
The return of ancestral remains is significant for several interconnected ethical and cultural reasons. Repatriation asserts that indigenous peoples deserve the same respect and bodily freedom in death as anyone else. For decades, museums treated indigenous bodies as “specimens” rather than human beings deserving proper burial. Repatriation signifies cultural sovereignty, affirming the right of Naga nations to govern their own cultural property, history, and genetic lineage.
Moreover, repatriation is a means of rebuilding trust through ethical collaborations and equal partnership. It opens doors for collaborative curation, where Naga communities can tell their own stories rather than being studied as passive objects of the past. This moment must be seized to foster a new era of respect between peoples of the West and the East.
Repatriation must also be understood as a pathway to healing, reconciliation, and reclaiming dignity. It directly addresses the wounds of hegemonic colonial violence—violence of presence, words, power, and guns. Furthermore, this moment must also include traumas and hurts inflicted by decades of militarisation and Naga inter-group violence. Repatriation ushers an opportunity to a new shared future. It opens pathways for healing and reconciliation, addressing not only colonial wounds but also traumas and hurts caused by militarisation and inter-group conflict. This occasion therefore, is being carefully planned in an inclusive manner to address traumas that facilitates holistic healing moving from the individual to the collective, from fragmented tribes to a reconciled Naga nation.
An awesome understanding dawns: the repatriation of Naga ancestral remains from the Pitt Rivers Museum is not merely an administrative act of restitution; it is a profound moral, cultural, social and theological moment that reverberates across generations. It is a moment where history bends toward justice, where memory is honoured, and where the dignity of a people long denied is restored.
At its core, repatriation is about human rights and restorative justice within the context of healing and peace. For centuries, indigenous remains were taken without consent, displayed as curiosities, and classified under demeaning categories. Their return is a declaration that indigenous peoples deserve the same respect in death as in life. For the Nagas, this act is sacramental, a rite of healing that restores broken relationships between land, ancestors, and the living.
Finally, repatriation raises deep theological questions. In Naga cosmology, ancestors are not “objects” but living presences. The return of the 39 Naga remains will allow rituals of burial and prayer, restoring peace to spirits displaced for generations.
Naga cosmology has always understood ancestors as living presences, not objects. Their displacement was not only physical but spiritual, a rupture in the sacred order. The return of the remains allows Nagas to perform rituals of burial and prayer, restoring peace to spirits long denied rest.
Consequently, the repatriation of Naga ancestral remains marks the beginning of a socio-cultural shift where Nagas reclaim their dignity, reconcile their divisions, and reimagine a future. It is the beginning of dialogue between past, present and future, between animism and Christianity, between Nagas and the world. It is the beginning of wholeness through healing, a wholeness that embraces memory, transforms trauma, and liberates the communal spirit from the rapture of colonialism.