Guwahati | The University of Oxford has agreed to repatriate 39 ancestral human remains belonging to the Naga community that were taken during the colonial period and later held in its museum collections in the United Kingdom.

The remains are housed at Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum, which holds one of the world’s largest collections of Naga cultural material, including thousands of objects from the region. The museum’s Naga collection comprises around 8,000 objects, including human remains, predominantly skulls. It also contains 178 objects that contain, or potentially contain, human hair.

The Pitt Rivers Museum removed human remains from public display in 2020 as part of changes to its collections and display practices. The repatriation of the 39 remains is scheduled for November and is expected to be the largest return of human remains in the museum’s history, according to comments by museum director Laura Van Broekhoven cited by The New York Times.

The Naga Tribe Hobos and the Forum for Naga Reconciliation said on Saturday that a Naga delegation would travel to the Pitt Rivers Museum to receive the remains and facilitate their return. Naga representatives have been pursuing the repatriation for several years, with formal discussions with the museum beginning in 2020.

A Naga delegation visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2025 as part of discussions over the proposed return of the ancestral remains. The repatriation comes amid growing international efforts by indigenous and local communities to reclaim human remains and cultural objects removed during the colonial era and held by museums and other institutions abroad.

During the colonial period, human remains were taken from several parts of Asia, Africa and other regions and transported to Britain and other European countries. Such remains were subsequently collected, studied and displayed by museums and private institutions.

The planned November handover is being viewed by Naga representatives as an important step towards restoring the ancestral remains to their community and place of origin.