The University of Oxford has returned the remains of 39 individuals, primarily skulls, belonging to the Naga community, which were obtained during British colonial rule in India. A delegation from Nagaland, a mountainous state in northeastern India, received these remains at an official ceremony held at Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum on Monday. The remains will be transported back to India and interred under a shared memorial in a park within Nagaland. This move aims to provide the deceased with a respectful rest, as described by Naga tribal leaders. Laura Van Broekhoven, museum director, acknowledged this as a historic event that would be an integral part of future generations' narratives. The remains were removed from public display in 2020 as part of a "decolonization process." The Pitt Rivers Museum houses over 6,000 objects associated with Naga culture, believed to be the largest collection worldwide, most of which were acquired during British colonial rule in India and Myanmar. Of the museum's listed 219 human remains, these were primarily collected between 1910 and 1940 by two colonial administrators who were also anthropologists. The remains were frequently obtained through punitive military expeditions rather than voluntary donations, as stated on the museum's website. During their visit to Oxford, the Naga delegation met with descendants of one of the anthropologists involved in acquiring the remains. Thejao Vihienuo, a tribal leader, voiced concerns over the methods used for taking these remains, suggesting that they were likely not voluntarily given. Anthropologists have noted that the Naga people once practiced head-hunting, but also kept their chiefs' heads in village centers. The Pitt Rivers Museum has previously returned human remains to indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand, and the US. This return of 39 ancestral remains follows a visit by a Naga delegation to Oxford in 2025, during which they formally requested their repatriation. The museum announced in September that these remains would be returned to India.