It is estimated that the UK’s public museums and private collections alone hold around 50,000 Naga objects.
Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) has the largest Naga collection: approximately 6,550 items, including 41 human remains. The museum also has human remains from several other states of British India.
But in recent years, experts say, many collectors are reconsidering their approach.
Kanungo says human remains have become “white elephants” for museums.
As part of an ethical review, started during the corona lockdown, the museum removed Naga skulls from public display in 2020 and placed them in storage. The PRM recognised that their collections have propagated harmful colonial stereotypes of cultures across the world. This enabled the Naga Forum for Reconciliation to start a dialogue and submit a claim.
The museum said it was yet to receive a formal claim from Naga descendants and the processes to return human remains “can take between 18 months and several years, depending on the complexity of the case”.
Repatriating human remains is more complicated than returning artefacts. It requires extensive research to determine whether the items were collected ethically, to identify descendants and to navigate complex international regulations on movement of human remains.
