POPE RETURNS 62 ARTIFACTS TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN CANADA AS PART OF RECKONING WITH COLONIAL PAST. (PHOTO).

Pope returns 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples in Canada as part of reckoning with colonial past

VATICAN CITY, ROME, ITALY - The Vatican on Saturday returned 62 culturally significant artifacts to Indigenous peoples in Canada, marking a major step in the Catholic Church’s ongoing effort to confront its historical role in suppressing Indigenous cultures across the Americas. The items—once housed in the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic Anima Mundi collection—include an iconic Inuit kayak, wampum belts, masks, and other ceremonial and everyday objects. They were formally handed over by Pope Leo XIV to representatives of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, who will work with Indigenous communities to ensure the pieces are returned to their rightful cultural homes. A joint statement described the transfer as a meaningful gesture of “dialogue, respect and fraternity,” signaling a shift in how the church manages cultural goods acquired during the colonial period.

Many of the artifacts were originally sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 Vatican exhibition meant to highlight the church’s global reach. While church officials have long maintained that these items were “gifts” to Pope Pius XI, historians and Indigenous leaders have challenged that claim. They note that such objects were often taken during an era when Catholic missions were deeply intertwined with government assimilation policies, including the Canadian potlatch ban and the residential school system—practices that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has defined as “cultural genocide.” Against this backdrop, the question of whether these items were freely given has remained highly contested.

Momentum toward the artifacts’ return increased following Pope Francis’ 2022 meeting with Indigenous delegations who had traveled to the Vatican to hear his apology for the church’s role in residential schools. During that visit, leaders viewed pieces from the collection—including the famed kayak—and requested their repatriation. Francis later signaled his support for returning items when appropriate, arguing that making such gestures was both moral and necessary. Saturday’s transfer coincided with the Holy Year and came exactly 100 years after the artifacts were first displayed in Rome.

The items will initially be sent to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, where museum specialists and Indigenous representatives will work to determine each artifact’s precise origins and the community with which it should ultimately be reunited. Canadian Catholic officials pledged that Indigenous peoples will serve as the true custodians of the returned materials and that they will be preserved with full respect for cultural protocols. Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See Joyce Napier called the return a long-awaited milestone and a “significant step toward reconciliation,” noting that Indigenous communities had been seeking this outcome for years.

The restitution comes amid a broader reassessment of the Catholic Church’s colonial legacy. In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” a collection of 15th-century papal decrees that European powers once used to justify the seizure of Native lands. Although the announcement stopped short of rescinding those decrees outright, it acknowledged the church’s complicity in the abuses that followed. By linking Saturday’s return to that repudiation, Vatican officials cast the artifact handover as the culmination of a long and necessary process of reflection—one they say Pope Leo XIV intends to continue as part of the church’s ongoing relationship with Indigenous peoples.