Voices unite against ‘dehumanising’ auction of ancestral Naga skull

DIMAPUR — The scheduled auction of a “19th century horned Naga human skull” at a UK auction house has ignited controversy, sparking concerns of colonial exploitation and insensitivity towards Indigenous heritage.

The skull, advertised as a unique collector’s item by Swan Fine Art at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, was slated to go under the hammer on October 9, with an estimated price tag of GBP 3,500-4,000. This macabre sale, part of “The Curious Collector Sale” alongside antiquarian books and furniture, included human remains from Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Benin, Congo, and Solomon Islands, among others.

The listing on the auction house website stated that the Naga skull “would be of particular interest to collectors with a focus on anthropology and tribal cultures.”

Naga anthropologist Dolly Kikon took to social media platform X on October 7, urging a halt to the auction: “Naga ancestral human remains continue to be collector’s item in the 21st century! Stop this auction”, she wrote, tagging the accounts of Nagaland Chief Minister’s Office, the British High Commission in India, and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, among others.

The controversy comes amidst ongoing efforts between the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), the Recover, Restore and Decolonise Team (RRaD), and Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) regarding the repatriation of Naga ancestral remains– an initiative that Kikon is also part of.

Notably, Laura Van Broekhoven, Director at PRM, responding to Kikon’s post on the micro-blogging platform, called the scheduled auction “completely unethical” and wrote: “Outrageous to auction ancestral and human remains. Completely unethical. Human remains from Naga, Shuar, Dayak, Solomon Islands and also Nigeria, Congo, Benin, PNG,… Please Stop this Auction”.

In another post, Broekhoven, mentioning the auction centre’s X handle, wrote, “Please, immediately pull from tomorrow’s auction the human and ancestral remains of Naga, Shuar, Dayak, Kota, Fon, Vili people and other communities in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nigeria, Congo, Ecuador, Nagaland, Benin,…”

On Tuesday, Kikon told Eastern Mirror that “The implication on the Naga people is the continued dehumanisation of our ancestors and our society.”

Stressing the need to examine how such practices are allowed to take place today, Kikon added that the auction includes ancestral human remains of many other communities from around the world. “In the experience of colonial trauma and dehumanisation, the Naga people share their history with other Indigenous peoples.”

In a letter to Nagaland’s Chief Minister, FNR Convenor Rev. Dr. Wati Aier condemned the auction, stating that “Such auctions continue the policy of dehumanisation and colonial violence on the Naga people.” He urged the chief minister to intervene by calling the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to swiftly act in stopping the auction from taking place.

The FNR also released another appeal, emphasising that the “Naga human remains were taken without people’s consent – in effect appropriated – by colonial administrators and soldiers who occupied the Naga homeland in the 19th century even as Naga villages resisted British punitive expeditions.”

Asserting that these human remains symbolise the violence that the British colonial power unleashed on the Nagas, it said that throughout the 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,” it said, adding that such auctions highlight “the impunity that descendants of European colonisers 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 rehumanisation from the colonial project,” it further stated.

The FNR highlighted recent precedents where similar sales of Egyptian human skulls and skeletal remains in Angus, Scotland, were halted. It called upon both the UK and India, as signatories of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), to uphold Article 15, which emphasises Indigenous peoples’ right to dignity and the combating of prejudice and discrimination.

“This is a defining moment for us — the governments of respective countries — to join hands with the Naga people to recraft a story of the Naga ancestral human remains and bring them back to the Naga homeland,” it added.

While expressing solidarity with other communities whose remains were included in the auction, the FNR also invoked Article 12 of UNDRIP, asserting their right to repatriate ancestral remains, and urged the governments of the UK and India to uphold ‘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.”

In response to the FNR’s plea, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio wrote to the Union Minister for External Affairs, S Jaishankar, calling for immediate action to ensure that the rights and emotions of the Naga people are protected.

“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…the auctioning of human remains deeply hurts the sentiments of the people, is an act of dehumanisation and is considered as continued colonial violence upon our people,” Rio said in his letter.

As of Tuesday evening, the auction house has removed the Naga remains from the catalogue.

However, Dr. Yanbeni Yanthan (Beni Sumer), an Assistant Professor at Nagaland University, noted that the incident still reveals a deeper issue: “I think what underlies this act is the sheer disregard to the selfhood of the Naga people, our history, our struggles, and our lived realities that create, shape and sustain Naga identity,” she stated. “It engenders a form of epistemic violence that attacks at the heart of the Naga credo.”

Dr. Yanthan further observed that the attempted auction, especially at a time when many institutions are actively working to decolonise their collections, feels like a “step back” and highlights the power imbalances that still persist.

“It’s a rude awakening to the reality of the existing power dynamics between indigenous peoples or ‘antiques’ and other majoritarian, dominant cultures for whom the ‘native’ is just another trophy,” she added.