On Saturday, Vatican City returned 62 artifacts, including an iconic Inuit kayak, as part of reparations for the Catholic Church’s role in oppressing indigenous cultures in the Americas. Pope Leo XIV transferred these items to a delegation from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Canada, with the expectation they will be returned to Indigenous communities. This initiative is framed as a gesture of “dialogue, respect, and fraternity.”
The artifacts were previously in the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection, which has faced scrutiny over the acquisition methods during colonial times. While the Vatican claims these items were gifts from Catholic missionaries, historians argue they were taken under coercive circumstances, linked to assimilation policies that marginalized Indigenous heritage in Canada.
Negotiations for the return of such artifacts gained momentum following Pope Francis’s 2022 meeting with Indigenous leaders, who were shown some items from the collection. The Vatican has indicated a willingness to return artifacts as a gesture of reconciliation.
The returned items will first be displayed at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, where their origins will be traced. Canadian officials have emphasized this repatriation as a vital step towards healing and reconciliation with Indigenous communities. Additionally, the Vatican’s 2023 rejection of the “Doctrine of Discovery” highlights its acknowledgment of past complicity in colonial abuses, although it did not directly address calls to revoke the original papal bull that justified land seizures.
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