A Bid to Undo a Colonial-Era Wrong Touches a People's Old Wounds
For centuries, the Indigenous Naga people of the Indian subcontinent have struggled to preserve their culture against external forces.
Now, Nagas are trying to reclaim a part of that lost history, but the process has been anything but straightforward.
Their efforts to repatriate ancestral remains, which have been in a British museum for more than a century, have been 'a trigger for the Nagas,' said Dolly Kikon, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is Naga herself.
Naga society has changed immensely since those remains were taken. To contemplate their return means reckoning with those changes, and with how many of them are the result of external forces and violence.
ARUNACHAL
PRADESH
NEPAL
Longleng
ASSAM
NAGALAND
Dimapur
INDIA
MANIPUR
MYANMAR
CHINA
New
Delhi
INDIA
Mumbai
Bay of
Bengal
200 mileS
By The New York Times
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
17 hours ago
Mexico City marks 700 years since its founding by Indigenous people
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City is marking the 700th anniversary of its founding with a series of public events on Saturday, including artistic performances honoring the city's Indigenous origins. Artists in Indigenous clothing reenacted the founding of the Aztec capital in front of the country's top officials in Mexico City's main square. Later, hundreds of dancers dressed in traditional clothing, feather headdresses, drums, and ankle rattles made of seeds performed sacred dances meant to connect with nature. The anniversary commemorates the establishment of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica, a group also known as the Aztecs, who settled in the Valley of Mexico in 1325. As recorded by early Spanish chroniclers, Mexica elders told of a divine sign from their patron god Huitzilopochtli: an eagle on a cactus, signaling where to settle. That place became Tenochtitlan, the center of Aztec civilization and the site of today's Mexico City. That symbol was later recorded in the Codex Mendoza, which contained historical accounts of the Aztec empire. It became central to Mexican identity and appears today on the national flag. 'Mexico was not born with the arrival of the Spanish; Mexico was born much earlier with the great civilizations,' said President Claudia Sheinbaum in a speech in which she urged the eradication of the racism that still persists in the country. Tenochtitlan began as a village on an island in a lake ringed by volcanic peaks. But historians say many other details that have come down in history are based heavily on legend, and that the exact founding date is unknown. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, they were awed by a city filled with palaces, bridges, canals and bustling trade, according to Spanish chronicler and conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Historian Miguel Pastrana of the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Historic Investigations Institute, an expert on Tenochtitlan, said the weekend's festivities are 'political and civic" and do not reflect the latest historical research. The historical record describes the Mexica as a people who migrated from a place called Aztlan, supposedly an island whose exact location remains unknown. They knew how to fish, gather aquatic plants and hunt birds, as well as build dams, and they tried to settle in several places before arriving in the Valley of Mexico. The main island in the lake was already populated by the Tepaneca people, but they allowed the Mexica to settle there in exchange for tribute payments and other services, Pastrana said. Little by little, the Mexica's power grew. They were strong warriors and commercially prosperous, and they were effective at making alliances with other peoples. Tenochtitlan became a great city at the center of an empire until the Spanish conquered it in 1521.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Woman Accuses Roommate of 'Showing Off' After Talking to Guest About Her Family's Culture
She was just sharing her background when a guest asked about her cooking, but now her roommate thinks she crossed a lineNEED TO KNOW A woman explains her multicultural background to a guest who asks about her cooking Her roommate later accuses her of flirting and being "showy" in her own kitchen The woman says she just answered his questions and now faces awkward tension at homeA woman got into a tense confrontation with her roommate over a seemingly innocent conversation about her culture. The 21-year-old, who describes herself as half Mexican and half Chinese, was left questioning whether she crossed a line after speaking about her heritage with a guest in their shared apartment. 'My parents came to the US before I was born, but thought it was very important for me to learn their native languages and participate in both of their cultures," she explains in her Reddit post. As a result, she grew up fluent in both Spanish and Mandarin and surrounded by a rich blend of Chinese and Mexican cuisine due to their love of cooking. The conflict unfolded one evening when she was cooking dinner, specifically, a family-created "fusion" dish, at home. 'I got stuck on a particular step, so I called my mom to ask for help and we talked in Spanish,' she writes, adding that her 23-year-old roommate, Ann, unexpectedly returned home with friends. One of the male guests entered the kitchen after noticing the aroma and asked what she was making. 'I explained the dish was created by my parents to blend Mexican and Chinese cuisine,' she recalls, noting that the guest seemed genuinely interested in the cultural fusion. He then asked why she was speaking Spanish on the phone, prompting her to share a bit about her upbringing. 'I told him that I'm half Mexican and half Chinese, and that I grew up speaking both Spanish and Mandarin with my parents,' she writes. The conversation continued with more questions about food and language, which she answered enthusiastically. The next day, the situation took a turn when another roommate told her that Ann felt she was 'showing off and flirting' with the guest. 'This pissed me off because I wasn't trying to flirt with him and he was the one who started the conversation with me,' she says. Wanting to clear the air, she approached Ann to discuss what happened, but the talk didn't go well. 'She just seemed annoyed and told me that it was obvious how it looked and I should be more mindful when she has her friends over,' the woman writes. Caught off guard by the accusation, she pointed out that she hadn't even been informed that guests were coming over. 'I told her that I can't be 'mindful' if she doesn't even warn me about having company over,' she says, adding, 'She said that she doesn't have to get my permission to invite people to the apartment.' At this point, the poster admits she got frustrated and decided to drop the conversation. 'I was getting irritated by this point so I let the conversation die down after this,' she shares. Since then, the atmosphere at home has been noticeably strained. 'Every time I see her she's short with me and barely acknowledges me,' she explains. With tension lingering, she turns to Reddit to ask if she "behaved out of line." Responses from Reddit users flooded in, offering strong support. One commenter emphasizes, 'This doesn't have anything at all to do with your heritage. This has to do with somebody she's obviously interested in was talking to you.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Another backed her up by addressing the apartment dynamic. ''She said that she doesn't have to get my permission to invite people to the apartment.' She's right. And you don't need permission to talk to people in your apartment.' Though the original post centers on cultural identity and a casual kitchen conversation, it became clear that jealousy may be at the heart of the issue. Still, the poster insists she had no hidden motives. Her only intention, she explains, was to cook dinner and share a meaningful part of her life when asked, expressing both pride in her heritage and confusion over the backlash. For the poster, the ordeal remains unresolved, but she ends on a lighter note by sharing, 'I posted the recipe to what I made on my profile since many of you were curious!' Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
A bid to undo a colonial-era wrong touches a people's old wounds
Their efforts to repatriate ancestral remains, which have been in a British museum for more than a century, have been 'a trigger for the Nagas,' said Dolly Kikon, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is Naga herself. Naga society has changed immensely since those remains were taken. To contemplate their return means reckoning with those changes, and with how many of them are the result of external forces and violence. Advertisement Members of Naga communities in northeastern India have worked for five years with the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, whose collection of Naga cultural objects is the largest in the world, toward the goal of repatriating the hundreds of human remains in the collection. In June, a delegation of 20 Naga leaders, elders and scholars visited the museum and saw those objects for the first time. 'I stood there beside them quietly, feeling a deep sorrow in my heart,' Kikon said. The human remains in the collection, which number more than 200, include a warrior's cranium, a woman's skull decorated with buffalo horns and a piece of skin with hair attached. Naga tradition holds that human remains are sacred, carrying life and spirit. 'They are restless, the spirits will not be in peace unless they find a resting place,' said K. Ongshong, a Naga elder from Longleng village in the Indian state of Nagaland. Advertisement Most of the remains were donated to the museum by J.P. Mills and J.H. Hutton, British colonial administrators in northeastern India. While some were given to the men as gifts, most were collected against Naga people's will during military expeditions into villages, according to experts. For years, the skulls were included in a Pitt Rivers exhibit titled 'Treatment of Dead Enemies,' under the label 'headhunting trophies' alongside remains from other Indigenous groups, including the well-known shrunken heads of the Shuar people of South America. That changed in 2020, when 120 of the human remains in the collection, including the shrunken heads and Naga remains, were removed from display and put in storage. In their place stand blue information boards explaining the contentious collection and the museum's decolonization efforts. 'These displays didn't match with our values any more,' Laura Van Broekhoven, the museum's director, said in an interview. Headhunting was practiced among Naga warriors, who collected the heads of enemies they killed in raids or war. (Despite the labeling by the museum, experts said it was unlikely that all the Naga skulls were enemy trophy heads; some may have been taken from burial sites.) Because of the gruesome nature of the practice, and the way it helped to feed a persistent stereotype of the Nagas as violent and warlike, some Nagas are hesitant to bring the remains home. The repatriation discussions are also touching on deeper wounds for many of the Naga people, who number about 2.5 million. Advertisement That is clear from the difficulties raised, in this case, by one of the first questions in any repatriation process: Where should these objects go? Today, most Nagas live in the Indian state of Nagaland. But Naga communities can also be found in the states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh -- and in Myanmar. Before the British colonists drew their borders, the Nagas lived in a contiguous region loosely known as the Naga hills, now divided among those modern states. In 1928, Nagas began making formal demands for independence, not wanting to be a part of the British Raj or India. 'The Nagas shared no cultural similarities with India,' said Akum Longchari, a peace and conflict activist based in Nagaland. But when the British left the subcontinent in 1947, Nagas were brought under the control of the Indian state. Decades of political struggle and armed resistance followed, broadly known as the Naga National Movement. India saw it as a threat and suppressed the insurgency. The fighting killed thousands over the years. India implemented laws that gave sweeping powers to its security forces and protected them from prosecution, which experts say led to human rights violations. Although a ceasefire was reached in 1997, the state of Nagaland remains one of India's most militarized regions. For some Nagas, the truce feels precarious, and much suspicion and mistrust remain. Longchari said Naga society had been in a constant state of struggle since British colonization in the 1800s. 'Nagas have had no time for reflection,' he said, adding, 'One colonizer left and another took their place right after.' Another factor complicating the repatriation process is the enduring legacy of American Christian missionaries, who first arrived in the Naga hills in the 19th century. Advertisement If the remains are laid to rest, some Nagas wonder, what funeral rituals should they be accorded -- the rites of Christianity, since that is the religion most Nagas now follow, or traditional, animistic ones? Knowledge of those older rites may now be limited, since the missionaries changed the region's culture along with its religion, said Nepuni Piku, a human-rights activist. 'They did not just come with their Bible, but with their cultural baggage,' Piku said. Naga culture was painted as backward and outdated, Christianity as modern, which led to the abandonment of many Naga cultural practices and rituals, he said. Naga activists and scholars, along with the Forum for Naga Reconciliation in Nagaland, a civil society organization, have been trying to build consensus on these questions and more. Once there is agreement on a plan for repatriating the remains and artifacts, a claim will be made to the university. If the university accepts the claim, then the governments of both countries will get involved. Last fall, a two-day conference on the proposed repatriation brought together community elders, scholars and students in a nondenominational Christian church in Dimapur, the largest city in Nagaland. A college student at the conference asked what relevance the traditions of the past had for the urban world he inhabits. Loina Shohe, a sociologist, replied that Naga culture, like any other, is not static but evolves with time. 'Our ancestors were self-sustained, not primitive or savage,' she said. The Nagas' history has caused them immense intergenerational trauma, Dr. P. Ngully, a psychiatrist in Nagaland, said in an interview last year. He was part of the delegation that visited Oxford, one month before he died in July. Such trauma, which he called an 'invisible epidemic,' can exacerbate alcohol and substance abuse, he said, problems that Naga society is trying to address among its youth. Advertisement Some younger Nagas are looking for ways to reconcile with that traumatic history. Throngkiuba Yimchungru, 35, conducts art workshops that he calls DeConstructing Morung. Long ago, morungs were youth dormitories where Nagas came together to socialize -- one of the traditions lost to Christianity and time. Yimchungru said he wanted to adapt the concept to the present. 'Morungs can be anywhere -- in a school, office, within a big city,' he said. 'They needn't be within an architectural structure.' Nagas' discussions with the Pitt Rivers Museum have also been an attempt to reconcile with the past. But the return of the remains in the museum's collection could conceivably take decades. The fastest repatriation the museum has ever carried out took a year and a half, while the longest -- the repatriation of Tasmanian human remains -- took 45. The Naga delegation to the museum opened its June visit with an Indigenous chant that alludes to the original parting of the Naga ancestors from their creator. The chant concludes with the hope that the ancestor will be reunited with the creator and help to heal the wounds of the past. 'I don't know if the process of repatriation will do the healing for us,' Kikon said. 'But I do know there's a lot of trauma and we need the healing.' This article originally appeared in
