FNR seeks repatriation of human remains of Naga ancestors back to the Naga homeland
Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 8 Oct: The Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) has reacted sharply after a Naga ancestral human remain – a ’19th century horned Naga human skull’ – was listed as part of a one-day sale by the Swan Fine Art at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom for the 9 October, 2024 auction.
The forum in a media statement said that it condemns the inhumane and violent practice where indigenous ancestral human remains continue to be collectors’ items in the 21st century.
Swan Fine Art, in response to an email from The Arunachal Times seeking comments after the widespread anger and disgust following the public revelation of the auction , has issued a statement. Its head of department, Matthew Hull, provided the following response.
“We had not realised the offence that the antique Naga tribe skull would cause. We are legally within our rights to include the item in our sale; however, as a mark of respect to the tribe and culture we have withdrawn the item from the sale.”
Earlier, the FNR flagged the issue to the chief minister of Nagaland, urging him to intervene by calling the high commissioner of the United Kingdom to swiftly act in stopping the auction from taking place.
“The auctioning of Naga ancestral human remains come at a time when members of the FNR and the Recover, Restore and Decolonize Team (RRaD) have been facilitating a dialogue process on the repatriation of Naga ancestral human remains from the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. The urgency to make repatriation of Naga ancestral human remains a priority is felt more than ever before,” the FNR wrote in the letter.
While calling for immediate stop of the auction, the forum said that in consonance with Article 12 of the UNDRIP, the FNR seeks to exercise the right to repatriate ancestral human remains. “We further ask the governments of the United Kingdom and India to implement Article 12 by enabling access and/or repatriation of human remains in their possession through fair, transparent and effective mechanisms, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned,” it said.
Currently, approximately 214 Naga ancestral remains (a combination of skeletal ancestral remains and objects made with components such as human hair or bone) are in the museum’s care, the RRaD website states. https://rradnagaland.org
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in a statement said that the state government has written to the external affairs minister, asking him to “direct the Indian high commission in the UK to undertake necessary steps to ensure that the auction of the human remains of our people is halted.”
The chief minister in a letter which was shared on social media accounts wrote that “the news of the proposed auction of Naga human remains in the UK has been received by all sections in a negative manner as it is a highly emotional and sacred issue for our people, as it has been a traditional custom of our people to give the highest respect and honour for the remains of the demised. You will agree that the human remains of any deceased person belongs to those people and their land. Moreover, the auctioning of human remains deeply hurts the sentiments of the people, is an act of dehumanization and is considered as continued colonial violence upon our people.”
The FNR has urged the governments of respective countries to join hands with the Naga people to re-craft a story of the Naga ancestral human remains and bring them back to the Naga homeland.
“The Naga human remains were taken without people’s consent – effect appropriated – by colonial administrators and soldiers who occupied the Naga homeland in the 19th century even as Naga villages resisted British punitive expeditions. These human remains symbolise the violence that the British colonial power unleashed on the Nagas. Throughout the period of British rule, the Naga people were defined as ‘savages’ and ‘headhunters’, which are insulting tropes that continue to be perpetuated today.”
“We are offended and deeply hurt that the skull of a Naga ancestor is being auctioned by an art dealer in the United Kingdom. Such auctions continue the policy of dehumanization and colonial violence on the Naga people. The auction highlights the impunity that descendants of European colonizers enjoy as they perpetuate a racist, colonial, and violent depiction of Naga people. This is counterintuitive to the Naga search for dignity, healing and reconciliation; and for re-humanization from the colonial project,” the FNR statement, signed by its Convenor Wati Aier, read.
It further expressed solidarity with people and communities who are being dehumanized along with the Nagas in such a manner.
The human remains from Nigeria, Benin, Congo, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands are part of the auction.
The Naga human remain was valued at 3,500-4,000 UK pounds and the provenance is traced to the Ex Francios Coppens Collection in Belgium, according to the auction website . The Naga ancestral human skull is part of an auction titled ‘The curious collector sale’, and is catalogued alongside antiquarian books, manuscripts, paintings, jewellery, ceramics and furniture.