Rome, Italy – According to a CBC News According to the report, several cultural objects held by the Vatican Museums will be handed over to Canadian Catholic Church bishops for return to Canada’s indigenous peoples through a “church-to-church” donation model. Sacred objects have historically been taken from Canada’s First Nations communities as part of forced conversions, cultural pressures, and residential school systems. Between 1885 and 1951, the items were also taken under Canada’s federal potlatch ban, which outlawed traditional ceremonies, said McGill University art historian Gloria Bell. The collection of cultural objects was eventually sent to Rome in 1925 by Roman Catholic missionaries, and many remain in the Vatican’s permanent collection. Items returned include a rare Inuvialuit Kayk made of a driftwood frame covered in sealskin from the western Arctic, a face mask from Haida Guai, pearl skin moccasins, etchings on birch bark, and an ivory and sealskin sculpture of a dog sled. “Each of these artifacts are sacred objects, vital to the healing journey for many residential school survivors,” said Bobby Cameron, head of the Federation of Sovereign Nations. He has repeatedly asked the Vatican to return pipes, ceremonial regalia and other sacred items taken by missionaries. To read about a Spanish Catholic cleric who tried to stamp out the Maya religion in 16th-century Mexico, go to “Acts of Faith.”
Post-Vatican museums will repatriate artifacts to Canada’s First Nations that have already been published in archeology magazines.
