Participants during the Morung Lecture XXII series, organized in partnership with the Research and Development Cell, Fazl Ali College, Mokokchung, on September 20.
Morung Express News
Mokokchung | September 21
Although the Naga ancestral remains at the Pitt Rivers Museum were taken more than a century ago, Dr. Ellen Konyak Jamir, coordinator of Recover, Restore, and Decolonise (RRaD), said that despite not knowing any of the ancestors, they felt an instant connection because of the village names written there and felt the “responsibility” to bring them back.
She was responding to a question on the Naga tradition of respect for the dead and its influence on repatriation during the Morung Lecture XXII series, organized in partnership with the Research and Development Cell, Fazl Ali College, Mokokchung, on September 20.
The Q&A session also featured Kaini Lokho, assistant professor of political science at Asufii Christian Institute, Mao; Dr. B. Henshet Phom, vice principal of Yingli College, Longleng; and Manngai H. Phom, assistant professor of English at Yingli College, Longleng.
Jamir spoke about historical wounds and how communities respond to trauma. People, she said, react in different ways—through feelings and emotions that may be unconscious. “While some face it head-on, others try to avoid it, forget about it, deny it or repress it,” she said.
However, she warned, “unaddressed trauma will linger and will be passed on from one generation to the other,” adding that it would eventually manifest in some form. She cited substance abuse among Nagas as a “coping mechanism,” the effects of which would be seen only 20 years down the line.
“When you look at the Naga society, a lot of historical trauma has been carried on,” she said. “Maybe we have done some healing to a large extent with faith, but there are still so many things that need attention.”
She said she strongly believes the repatriation process is awakening the consciousness of both young and old Nagas. In this regard, she said, repatriation brings people together to understand history because “we cannot separate the past, present and the future.”
Empathy enough to forgive, apologize and reconcile
Looking at repatriation as a catalyst for reclaiming the process of understanding culture and existence, Manngai H. Phom spoke about how Nagas view death: one approach is to preserve and the other is burial, he said, citing the Christianized tradition.
Recalling his visit to Longwa with Dolly Kikon, he described how people become witnesses to decay. While the dead are supposed to be buried, transcending to another phase of life, he said, “what is more important is who takes the ownership of witnessing the process of breaking down of the human matter.”
“This creates or sums up what we are looking at from the cultural chasm that is too wide, and the historical wound that we are looking at,” he said. Arguing that history is being reimagined in the present and not as a legacy or a lived heritage, he also discussed the divided approach to repatriation while stressing “unity and reconciliation.”
“It is time that we step up and understand, to recentre, renarrate and reintroduce our way of approach toward not only simply preserving but being present in the process, and know how to confront it,” he said.
Pointing out that Nagas as a people don’t want to talk about being defeated within the structure of their own community, he said, “we also need to rework. We can’t go back to the mythical past.” He said there is a need for negotiation and restructuring in the way culture is being reintroduced.
When it comes to confronting trauma, he said, confrontations are very important and urged “the need to bring forth a huge amount of empathy, empathy enough to forgive, empathy enough to apologize and empathy enough to reconcile.”
We should decolonize our minds
While the British liberated Nagas politically and geographically, Dr. B. Henshet Phom said they have not liberated minds and urged, “we should decolonize our minds.”
He cited instances of important events in Nagaland that imitate the West and said there are indigenous ways to conduct such programs, including decolonizing institutional mottos. He also pointed to developed countries that give importance to their culture and to the custodians of the land, wherein on every occasion they give respect to the custodians of the land past, present and emerging.
Affirming that Nagas are one, he reiterated, “we have to decolonize our minds.” Stating that it should start with individuals, he said, “we should start glorifying our ancestors and our traditions.”
Kaini Lokho noted that because people have been desensitized to colonialism, some voices opposed the repatriation process with feedback such as, “what has been kept there must be kept there so that the idea of bringing back bad luck should not come back with the remains.”
“We have gained so much from the colonial legacy and at the same time, lost so much,” she said.
She recalled that before the trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum, the team sat down with community leaders and elders and “discussed how to democratize the process so that people understand that what we are doing is not just to bring back but that it is also done respectfully and is done with our idea of healing.”
In 2020, the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, UK, removed 120 Naga ancestral human remains from display shelves in an effort to redress the violent history of colonialism associated with the institution. This was part of the museum’s “Committed to Change” initiative, Jamir noted.
Responding to a question on power dynamics between indigenous communities and global institutions like the museum and its impact on the repatriation process, Jamir said the authority in this case has been the PRM, which has also realized it is time to bring about change in their museums.
While Nagas were described as “savages” and “exotic species” in the past and with anthropologists taking away human skulls to prove this superiority, she said, “it is a paradigm shift that is going to impact us but also them as an institution.”
As an opportunity for the museum to do something good and change the narrative, she added, “we are now in partnership about what best can be done with the remains.”
“They are sharing the responsibility and power with indigenous people like us,” she said.
