Indigenous Guests at the Vatican

"We are in 2022 and our history is being stored and shown in other countries where nobody understands."

"These items, those artifacts ... those are ours. Those belong in our communities."

"They belong to people. They belong to generations."

Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier, retired chief, Okanese First Nation, Saskatchewan

Assembly of First Nations delegation lead Regional Chief Gerald Antoine says he hopes the delegation can forge a new relationship with Pope Francis and the Catholic Church after the visit to the Vatican   CBC

 

A delegation of Canadian Indigenous representatives travelled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis last week. While on the way they anticipated seeing pieces of their own history on display at the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum in Vatican City. The museum has on display for the very few who may have access to its treasures, collections of Indigenous artifacts. Artifacts that, in fact, were collected, but possibly not ever before displayed publicly.

Chief Walker-Pelletier spoke of observing the objects in the museum, spurring thoughts of artifacts in her opinion, speaking truth to life, history and the communities of Indigenous people. She had strong feelings of the venerable artifacts reflecting her peoples' history being in the possession of the Vatican. She was part of the delegation as a former pupil within the residential school system, most of which were operated by groups within the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

In her opinion, if the Roman Catholic Church is committed, as it says it is, to truth and reconciliation, it would divest itself of Indigenous-Canadian artifacts, returning them to those for whom it has personal meaning and in whose possession they would be honoured, placed on public display and used as teaching materials, as proud symbols of the past.

"That's one of the things the Pope needs to look at, how does he reconcile and bring back the artifacts", she said. According to Indigenous curators and experts, they have been unsuccessful in obtaining access to objects, unknown in quantity, held in the possession of the Church. The Vatican's collection began at the behest of a pope who had planned on holding a world exposition in 1925.

In preparation for that event, a message was sent out to missionaries around the globe with instructions to collect and send aboriginal cultural and religious items to the Vatican. A request that resulted in over 100,000 objects and works of art being sent to the Vatican for display during that exposition, and held by the Vatican ever since. The Pope in 2019 planned on placing many more objects on display, those of Indigenous people among them. 

Last year the Inuvialuit Regional Corp. requested that a rare kayak made by Inuvialuit be returned to them. Embroidered gloves from a Cree community, a baby belt from a Gwich'in community, moccasins from British Columbia, masks, wampum belts, pipes and rugs were all on display for the visiting Indigenous people. 

 

Originally, such heritage objects were removed from Indigenous hands when the Canadian government outlawed cultural practices in 1875, through the Indian Act. Ceremonial objects along with other items of cultural importance were seized, sold, given to museums, or destroyed.

 

 Pope Francis welcomed a delegation of Canada's First Nations to the Vatican. They asked to revoke centuries-old papal decrees used to justify the seizure of Indigenous lands in the Americas by colonial powers. (Vatican Media/Catholic Press Photo)