UKHRUL: After six years of effort by a delegation of Naga tribal Hoho leaders, elders, and members from the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) and Recover, Restore and Decolonise (RRaD), the University of Oxford Council has officially agreed to return 39 Naga ancestral remains currently housed at the Pitt Rivers Museum in the United Kingdom.
This was announced at a press briefing in the inaugural session of the September Dialogue themed, “Returning to Wholeness Through Healing,” at The Lighthouse Church in Dimapur on Saturday. The briefing was led by Rev. Dr. Wati Aier, convenor, FNR; Rev. Dr. Ellen Konyak Jamir, coordinator, FNR-RRaD; Thejao Vihienuo, president, Angami Public Organisation (APO); NT Thamlong Phom, vice president, Phom People’s Council (PPC); and Jollyson R. Shimray, vice president, Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL).
Rev. Aier called on the Naga people to view the return of ancestral remains not merely as an administrative gesture, but as a transformative turning point for collective restoration. He stressed that the initiative directly confronts more than a century of colonial violence, militarisation, and forced cultural fragmentation.
Dr. Aier framed the historical loss of ancestral remains as part of a larger pattern of colonial erasure that reduced human beings to “exotic objects” held in foreign exhibits. Grounding his address in research on Indigenous trauma — including insights from Naga scholar Dolly Kikon and Lakota Sioux researcher Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart — he emphasised that trauma among tribal communities is inherently collective and intergenerational.
“Trauma in tribal contexts is collective and intergenerational because it is borne by entire communities,” Dr. Aier stated. “Children inherit not only stories of violence, but also patterns of mistrust, fear, and fractured identity.”
Reclaiming these ancestors, he argued, shifts the Naga trajectory from passive victims of structural violence to active agents of self-determination.
At the centre of the address was an appeal for redemptive memory — a conscious choice to remember past wounds in ways that unify the community rather than poison its future.
Dr. Aier warned against nurturing unresolved wounds as bitterness, noting that harbouring historical trauma fuels inter-tribal suspicion and factional fragmentation. He also focused on the transition from victims to story tellers, as ancestors who left as stolen colonial exhibits return as revered elders laid to rest with honour, rewriting the end of the colonial narrative.
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Describing repatriation as a “sacrament of belonging” and a public theological responsibility, Dr. Aier urged all sectors of Naga society to embrace a shared vision of shalom — defined not merely as the absence of conflict, but as the active presence of justice, reconciliation, and human flourishing.
He called upon major ecclesiastical bodies — including the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), Nagaland Christian Revival Church (NCRC), and the Catholic Church — to lead prayer vigils centred on forgiveness. Simultaneously, he urged political groups, tribal Hohos, youth, and the diaspora to seal a covenant of mutual respect over the returning remains, ensuring that historical grudges are not passed down as an inheritance to future generations.That spiritual framing sits alongside a years-long practical effort.
The Oxford decision was finalised on July 13, 2026, when Prof. Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, formally conveyed the decision in a letter to Rev. Wati Aier. “We hope we can now commence the work… towards bringing the Naga ancestors to their homeland,” Prof. Van Broekhoven wrote.
The repatriation initiative began in 2020, when Prof. Van Broekhoven approached the FNR to facilitate the return. To guide the effort, the FNR collaborated with two prominent Naga academics — Prof. Dolly Kikon (US) and Prof. Arkotong Longkumer (UK) — to establish RRaD. The all-volunteer team has since engaged extensively with tribal Hoho leaders, civil society groups, church members, students, and local communities across the Naga homeland, aiming to foster public understanding, solidarity, and historical awareness around the return of the remains.
A key turning point came in June 2025, when the delegation visited the Pitt Rivers Museum. On June 13, following intense consultations with museum officials, they released the historic Naga Oxford Declaration on Repatriation — expressing deep gratitude to the ancestors, acknowledging the decades-long delay in reclaiming them, and formally committing to their return.
The declaration reaffirmed that the repatriation process is essential for the emotional and historical healing of the Naga people. The delegation also pledged to lay the ancestors to rest with dignity in a unified voice, and to extend support to Indigenous communities worldwide seeking similar paths toward decolonization, justice, and peace.
That journey continues through the September Dialogue, FNR-RRaD’s inter-disciplinary and inter-generational learning series aimed at building a Naga discourse on repatriation, trauma healing, reconciliation, and decolonisation. The first Dialogue was held in 2024 as a platform for collaborative discussion on the repatriation journey; the second reflected on the delegation’s visit to Oxford.
This year’s third edition brings together community leaders, scholars, and researchers to engage with issues of repatriation and the process from recovery to reclaiming, alongside an art exhibition and video documentary.
Following Oxford’s decision, a delegation led by Naga Tribe Hoho leaders, alongside FNR-RRaD representatives, will travel to the Pitt Rivers Museum to formally claim and accompany the remains home. In a joint statement, the Naga Tribe Hohos and FNR-RRaD emphasised the broader meaning of the moment:
“Repatriation, for the Nagas, is not simply about bones and ancestral remains finding their way back to the land, but importantly it is about memory returning to where it belongs. It is an essential step of a longer journey towards justice and dignity, and towards healing and wholeness.”
Preparations for the return and subsequent memorial ceremonies in Nagaland are expected to begin in the coming months.
