Vatican Returns Indigenous Items, But Draws Criticism For Labeling Them ‘Gifts’
ROME — Activists and academics advocating for the repatriation of artifacts “stolen by Pope Pius XI and his missionaries” from Indigenous First Nations communities are displeased by Pope Leo XIV’s labeling of these items as a “gift” despite his agreement to return them.
A statement issued by the Holy See and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on Nov. 15 said that the pope “gifted to the CCCB the 62 artifacts belonging to the ethnological collections of the Vatican Museums” as “an act of ecclesial sharing.”
“Pope Leo XIV desires that this gift represent a concrete sign of dialogue, respect, and fraternity,” the statement noted, explaining that “the Holy Father’s gift” takes place in the context of the Jubilee of 2025 and the centenary of the Vatican Missionary Exhibition.
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The statement did not acknowledge that the treasures were “stolen,” but rather that they were “received” as “part of the patrimony” by Pope Pius XI during the Holy Year of 1925, to “bear witness to the faith and cultural richness of peoples.”
A CCCB news release published the same day stressed the nature of the artefacts as a “gift.” Titled “Pope Leo XIV’s Gift of Indigenous Artifacts to the CCCB,” the statement said that the items would be transferred to the National Indigenous Organizations, which would then return the artifacts to their communities of origin.
“The Holy Father’s gift is a tangible sign of his desire to help Canada’s bishops walk alongside Indigenous Peoples in a spirit of reconciliation during the Jubilee Year of Hope and beyond,” Bishop Pierre Goudreault, CCCB president, said.
In July, Gloria Bell, a professor in the department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, told Religion Unplugged that the Vatican was continuing to falsely “refer to everything in their collection as a ‘gift.’”
“The majority of the Indigenous arts collection, including sacred ancestors at ‘Anima Mundi,’ was amassed to please the greed of Pope Pius XI, who demanded everything and anything related to Indigenous life for his Vatican Missionary Exhibition,” Bell observed.
Bell writes in her book, “Eternal Sovereigns: Indigenous Artists, Activists, and Travelers Reframing Rome”: “The curatorial texts in the exhibition described the materials as ‘gifts’ given to Pope Pius XI, thus repeating the same colonial and missionary language of possession and ownership that denied the cultural belongings as signifiers of Indigenous peoples’ cultural and intellectual sovereignty. The term ‘gift’ also incorrectly denoted that they were freely given.”
“The VME was one of the largest Catholic missionary expositions in Europe during the early twentieth century and showcased stolen Indigenous art as well as sacred and secular belongings taken from Indigenous communities across the globe,” she added.
The artifacts include an Inuvialuit sealskin kayak, embroidered Cree leather gloves, a 200-year-old wampum belt, war clubs, a headdress, masks, a baby belt from the Gwich’in people, and a beluga tooth necklace.
“When the Vatican is using this language of giftings, we have to be quite hesitant,” Cody Groat, an assistant professor in the department of history and Indigenous Studies at Western University, told The Canadian Press.
Groat, a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, acknowledged that Indigenous nations often gave items to settler societies or to church bodies to build diplomatic relationships.
However, when the artifacts were taken away for the Vatican exhibition in the 1920s, it was a “coercive period” with the Indian Act at “its most assimilative,” cultural practices were “actively banned,” and the residential school system was in full effect, Groat observed.
Hugh Braker, a member of the political executive of the First Nations Summit, explained that the artifacts were taken away during the potlatch ban (1880s-1951), established to assimilate Indigenous peoples by targeting their cultural, social, and economic practices.
“The unfortunate thing is that when the priests, Indian agents, and police raided some places of the potlatches, they would seize the regalia. Sometimes, they would keep some,” he said.
While flying back from Hungary in April 2023, Pope Francis acknowledged that the artifacts had been stolen from Indigenous communities. He told the Associated Press that restoring the looted artifacts was “the right gesture” and “good for everyone, so you don’t get used to putting your hands in someone else’s pockets.”
“The Seventh Commandment comes to mind: If you steal something, you have to give it back,” Francis emphasized at the time. “The restitution of the indigenous things is underway with Canada — at least we agreed to do it.”
The treasures, the pope said, would be restored as part of a “pilgrimage of penance.”
CCCB Director of Communications, Pomeline Martinoski, told Religion Unplugged that the joint statement “refers to the gift of artifacts from the Supreme Pontiff to the CCCB.”
“From the artifacts which had been part of the 1925 World Missionary Exposition, the Vatican Museums identified 62 which had not been specifically gifted to the Vatican by Indigenous Peoples, religious orders and missionaries, or other donors. These are the artifacts that the CCCB is transferring to National Indigenous Organizations,” she said.
Jules Gomes has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.