The Vatican is repatriating 62 artifacts, including an Inuit kayak, to indigenous communities in Canada as part of its reconciliation efforts for its role in suppressing indigenous culture. The items were previously part of the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection, and their return is seen as a gesture of respect and a step towards truth and justice.
The Vatican is returning 62 items from its collection of native art and other items to indigenous tribes in Canada as part of its atonement for its role in suppressing “indigenous culture” in the Americas, the Vatican announced Saturday.
Pope Leo XIV has sent the artifacts, including an iconic Inuit kayak, to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which said it would return the items to their original indigenous communities “as soon as possible.” A Vatican and Canadian church statement described the artifacts as a “gift” and a “concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity,” according to a“This is an important step that honours the diverse cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples and supports ongoing efforts toward truth, justice, and reconciliation,” Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand wrote on X. Since 1925, the items were featured as part of the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection, known today as the Anima Mundi museum. However, it was one of the museum’s least visited collections located “near the food court and right before the main exit,” Items were originally collected by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 exhibit in the Vatican gardens. The exhibition included “feathered headdresses, carved walrus tusks, masks and embroidered animal skins,” which the Vatican said were “gifts” to Pope Pius XI, who “wanted to celebrate the Church’s global reach,” according to AP. Pope Francis dons a headdress during a visit with Indigenous peoples at Maskwaci, the former Ermineskin Residential School, Monday, July 25, 2022, in Maskwacis, Alberta. Pope Francis traveled to Canada to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses committed by Catholic missionaries in the country’s notorious residential schools. In the modern era, the collection became a controversy in that the items were cultural goods taken from Indigenous people during the colonial periods when the “balance of power” was in the favor of the Church and the government.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 government’s forced assimilation policy of eliminating Indigenous traditions, which Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called “cultural genocide.” The artifacts are scheduled to arrive in Montreal on December 6 at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa and then be “reunited with their originating communities,” a spokesman for the Canadian bishops’ conference told news outlets.Crockett: Speaker Johnson 'Full of Sh-t'Bass: ICE Is Why Light Rail Isn’t Being Used, ICE Might Increase HomelessnessMarlow: Democrats Didn’t Care About Epstein Victims While Biden Was in PowerBolton: Trump ‘Put the Gun on the Table’ to Overthrow Maduro
Vatican Canada Indigenous Peoples Repatriation Reconciliation
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Outcry as German auction house plans sale of Holocaust artifacts and lettersA Holocaust survivors group is urging a German auction house to cancel a sale of Holocaust artifacts. The International Auschwitz Committee calls the auction 'cynical and shameless.' The sale, titled 'The System of Terror,' is set for Monday by the Felzmann auction house.
Read more »
Germany cancels auction of Holocaust artifacts after backlashPoland's foreign minister says an auction of Holocaust artifacts in Germany has been canceled
Read more »
Vatican Returning Artifacts Taken from Canadian Tribes 100 Years AgoSource of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »
Germany cancels auction of Holocaust artifacts after backlashPoland's foreign minister says an auction of Holocaust artifacts in Germany has been canceled.
Read more »
Germany cancels auction of Holocaust artifacts after backlashPoland's foreign minister says an auction of Holocaust artifacts in Germany has been canceled.
Read more »
Germany cancels auction of Holocaust artifacts after backlashPoland's foreign minister said Sunday that an “offensive” auction of Holocaust artifacts has been canceled in Germany following complaints from Holocaust survivors.
Read more »