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3h ago

Sixty-Two Indigenous Artifacts From Vatican Unveiled in Canada

Indigenous experts will examine the collection at the Canadian Museum of History ahead of community reunification.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, right, along with representatives from various First Nations receive a kayak and other indigenous artifacts at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, on Saturday, on December 6, 2025.
National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak speaks during a press conference welcoming 62 Indigenous cultural artifacts on their arrival from the Vatican in Dorval, Quebec, Canada, on December 6, 2025.
Isaiah Bernard of Potlotek First Nation, Isaiah Andersen from Winnipeg, Katisha Paul of the Lil'wat and Tsartlip Nations and Peyal laceese of the Tsilhqotin Nation embrace after a press conference welcoming 62 Indigenous cultural artifacts on their arrival from the Vatican in Dorval, Quebec, Canada, on December 6, 2025.
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Overview

  • The items arrived in Montreal on Saturday and were presented Tuesday in Gatineau, marking the start of conservation and provenance work led by Indigenous communities.
  • The collection includes a traditionally built Inuvialuit sealskin kayak described by Inuit leaders as a focal piece for cultural revival and one of only a handful known to remain.
  • Pope Leo XIV transferred the artifacts and documentation to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which pledged to return them to communities as soon as possible following a process launched under Pope Francis.
  • Most objects were sent to Rome for the 1925 Vatican Mission Exposition; the Vatican describes them as historical gifts to Pope Pius XI, a characterization disputed by Indigenous leaders and historians given the power dynamics of the era.
  • Officials and experts call the handover a beginning, noting the Vatican has no public inventory of its wider holdings and that further repatriations could follow.