War Residues

Supported by the Delta on the Move Foundation, the War Residues project explores how memories of the Second World War continue to circulate through everyday objects and oral histories in the highland borderlands of Nagaland and Myanmar. Often described as a 'Forgotten War', WWII profoundly shaped Naga communities along the India–Myanmar borderlands, yet their perspectives remain largely absent from dominant historical narratives.

The project focuses on wartime objects—including aircraft debris, weapons, and tools—that local communities repurposed for everyday use after the war. Together with oral histories preserved in local Naga languages, these materials reveal forms of agency, creativity, and negotiation, as well as diverse and locally grounded understandings of what the war meant—and continues to mean—to different communities.

Fieldwork will be conducted in border districts including Noklak, Meluri, and Kiphire, documenting endangered oral histories and artefacts from a rapidly disappearing generation of war witnesses. The project will also examine the emergence of village-based war museums and grassroots heritage initiatives, situating them within broader debates on memory, nationalism, tourism, and globalization.

Using an interdisciplinary and multimodal approach that combines ethnography, oral history, object-based research, photography, illustration, and other creative methods, War Residues aims to reframe the history of WWII from the perspectives of marginalized border communities. Planned outcomes include an illustrated booklet, academic publications, and public workshops hosted by the Highland Institute, bringing the objects and their associated stories to wider audiences.