Vatican Museums to Repatriate Objects to Canada's First Nations
According to a CBC News report, the Vatican Museums will return several cultural objects to the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
The objects were historically taken from Canada's First Nations communities as part of forced conversion, cultural suppression, and the residential school system. Between 1885 and 1951, objects were also taken under Canada's federal potlatch ban, which outlawed traditional ceremonies, explained art historian Gloria Bell of McGill University.
The collections of cultural objects were eventually shipped to Rome in 1925 for an exhibit centered on regions where Roman Catholic missionaries had been sent, and many of the objects remained in the Vatican's permanent collections.
- The Vatican Museums will hand over the objects to bishops of the Canadian Catholic Church for return to Indigenous peoples of Canada through a "church-to-church" donation model.
Author's summary: Vatican Museums return cultural objects to Canada's First Nations.