Forum for Naga Reconciliation condemns “inhumane and violent” practice where indigenous ancestral human remains continue to be collector’s items in the 21st century
By Imna Longchar, TFM Nagaland Correspondent
The Swan Fine Arts at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom has withdrawn the 19th Century Horned Naga Human Skull from its online saleroom after serious condemnations poured in from various sections of the Naga society and others. The Naga ancestral human skull was listed as one of the items for auction lot no. 65 on October 9-10. It was valued between 3,500 to 4000 UK Pounds and the provenance was traced to the “ex-Francios Coppens Collection” from Belgium.
It may be noted that the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) convenor Rev Dr Wati Aier issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the “inhumane and violent” practice where indigenous ancestral human remains continue to be collector’s items in the 21st century. It also sought the intervention of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to stop the auction.
He stated that the Naga ancestral human skull is a part of an auction titled “The curious collector sale” and was catalogued alongside antiquarian books, manuscripts, paintings, jewelry, ceramics, and furniture.
Rev Dr Wati Aier, lamented that the Naga human remains were taken without the people’s consent—in effect appropriated by the colonial administrators and the soldiers who had occupied the Naga homeland in the 19th Century even as the Naga villages resisted the British punitive expeditions while also adding that these human remains symbolize 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 were insulting tropes that continue to be perpetuated even today”, said Rev Dr Wati Aier.
Stating that the FNR is “offended and deeply hurt” that the skull of a Naga ancestor is to be auctioned by an Art dealer in the United Kingdom, Aier also said that such auctions continue the policy of “dehumanization” and colonial violence on the Nagas and that the proposed auction highlights the impunity that the descendants of European colonizers enjoy as they perpetuate “racist, colonial, and violent depiction” on the Nagas.
Accordingly, Aier mentioned that this was counterintuitive to the Naga’s search for dignity, healing, and reconciliation, and for “rehumanization” from the colonial project and furthermore, it contravenes Article 15 of the United Nations declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which states that the indigenous people have a right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories, and aspirations, which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public information.
Denouncing the injustice, the FNR has urged the authority (s) concerned to ensure that the Naga people’s voice be heard by immediately stopping the proposed October 9 auction.
The FNR stated that there have been precedents when such sales were stopped by citing the sale of Egyptian human skulls, and the withdrawal of the sale of skeletal remains in Angus, Scotland.
FNR said that this matter was also at the heart of an ethical stand that the international governments including those in the United Kingdom (UK), and India, must consider as both the countries are signatories of UNDRIP, must be in consonance with the Article 15of the UNDRIP that takes effective measures in consultation and cooperation with the indigenous people concerned to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote tolerance, understanding, and good relations.
This, it said was a defining moment for the Nagas—-the government of respective countries to join hands with the Nagas to recraft a store of the Naga ancestral human remains and bring them back to Naga homeland.
While calling for immediate for immediate stop of the auction, the FNR in consonance with Article 12 of the UNDRIP sought to exercise the right to repatriate ancestral human remains at the same time asked the governments of the United Kingdom (UK), 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 and effective mechanisms developed in conjunction with the indigenous people concerned.
Nagaland CM writes to union minister for external affairs
Nagaland chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, on Tuesday has shot off an “urgent letter” to union minister for external affairs S Jaishankar, seeking his immediate intervention on the issue of a Naga ancestral human remain listed as a “19th Century Horned Naga Human Skull” to be a part of an auction by the Swan Fine Arts at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
According to Rio, this was informed to him by the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) and that the same news about the proposed auction of the Naga human remains in the UK on October 9 has been received by all sections in a negative manner as it is highly “emotional and sacred” issue for the Nagas as it has been a traditional custom of the Nagas to give the highest respect and honour for the remains of the demised.
In the letter, Rio mentioned that everyone would agree that the human remains of any deceased person belongs to those people and their land, and moreover, auctioning of the human remains deeply hurts the sentiments of the Nagas, is an act of dehumanization and considered as continued colonial violence upon the Nagas.
In this regard, Rio urged the union minister for eternal affairs to take the matter with the Indian High Commission in the UK in order to undertake necessary steps to ensure that the auction of the human remains be halted by citing that the issue has become serious amongst the citizens of Nagaland, and for which he also urged the Indian government to do everything possible to ensure that the rights and emotions of the Nagas are protected.