Vatican to return artifacts to Canada’s Indigenous groups

The Vatican is expected to soon announce that it will return a few dozen artefacts sought by Indigenous communities in Canada as part of its reckoning with the Catholic Churchs troubled role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas officials said on WednesdayThe items including an Inuit kayak are part of the Vatican Museums ethnographic collection known as the Anima Mundi museum The collection has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader museum debate over the restitution of cultural artefacts taken from Indigenous peoples during colonial periodsNegotiations on returning the Vatican items accelerated after Pope Francis in 2022 met with Indigenous leaders who had travelled to the Vatican to receive his apology for the churchs role in Canadas disastrous residential schools During their visit they were shown some objects in the collection including wampum belts war clubs and masks and asked for them to be returnedFrancis later said he was in favour of returning the items and others in the Vatican collection on a casebycase basis saying In the case where you can return things where its necessary to make a gesture better to do itThe Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops said Wednesday it has been working with Indigenous groups on returning the items to their originating communities It said it expected the Holy See to announce the return Vatican and Canadian officials said they expected an announcement in the coming weeks and that the items could arrive on Canadian soil before the end of the yearThe Globe and Mail newspaper first reported on the progress in the restitution negotiationsMost of the items in the Vatican collection were sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 exhibition in the Vatican gardens that was a highlight of that years Holy YearDoubt cast on whether the items were freely givenThe Vatican insists the items were gifts to Pope Pius XI who wanted to celebrate the churchs global reach its missionaries and the lives of the Indigenous peoples they evangelisedBut historians Indigenous groups and experts have long questioned whether the items could really have been offered freely given the power imbalances at play in Catholic missions at the time In those years Catholic religious orders were helping to enforce the Canadian governments policy of eliminating Indigenous traditions which Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called cultural genocideThe return of the items will follow the churchtochurch model the Vatican used in 2023 when it gave its Parthenon Marbles to the Orthodox Christian Church in Greece The three fragments were described by the Vatican as a donation to the Orthodox church not a statetostate repatriation to the Greek governmentIn this case the Vatican is expected to hand over the items to the Canadian bishops conference with the explicit understanding that the ultimate keepers will be the Indigenous communities a Canadian official said Wednesday speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are not concludedWhat happens after the items are returnedThe items accompanied by whatever provenance information the Vatican has will be taken first to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau Quebec There experts and Indigenous groups will try to identify where the items originated down to the specific community and what should be done with them the official saidThe official declined to say how many items were under negotiation or who decided what would be returned but said the total numbered a few dozenThe aim is to get the items back this year the official said noting the 2025 Jubilee which celebrates hope and the centenary of the 1925 Holy Year that was the reason for the items to be brought to Rome in the first placeThe 1925 exhibit is now so controversial that its 100th anniversary has been virtually ignored by the Vatican which celebrates a lot of anniversariesThe Assembly of First Nations said some logistical issues need to be finalised before the objects can be returned including establishing protocolsFor First Nations these items are not artefacts They are living sacred pieces of our cultures and ceremonies and must be treated as the invaluable objects that they are National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told Canadian PressThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever