A kayak with a century-old history has been kept hidden in the storerooms of the Vatican Museums for many years. While its driftwood structure remains intact, the sealskin covering shows signs of wear and tear.
This kayak, long forgotten by many, bears witness to the hunting traditions of the Inuvialuit people in the Western Arctic, where they pursued seals, walruses, and whales. Now, it symbolizes a significant step towards reconciliation between the Roman Catholic Church and Indigenous communities in Canada.
Following intricate negotiations, the kayak and other Indigenous artifacts are on the brink of being returned to their rightful homes, representing a meaningful gesture of healing for communities impacted by the legacy of Catholic-run residential schools.
Insiders reveal that the Vatican and the Canadian Catholic Church are making strides in reaching an agreement to repatriate these cultural treasures by the end of the year, with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) facilitating the handover.
The CCCB issued a statement affirming its collaboration with Indigenous Peoples on crucial matters, such as artifacts currently housed at the Vatican Museums, and expressing its support for repatriating these items to their “originating communities.”
An official announcement is expected to be made by the Holy See in the upcoming weeks.
‘Church-to-church’ donation
Among the items slated for return is the rare kayak, described as one of only five of its kind globally. Initially, these artifacts will be transferred to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, where experts will evaluate their condition, authenticate their age and provenance, and collaborate with a panel of Indigenous representatives to determine their final placement.
A confidential source disclosed that the transfer is structured as a “church-to-church” donation, allowing the Vatican to sidestep setting a precedent of directly returning cultural artifacts to nations or communities.
This approach mirrors the method employed when the Vatican repatriated fragments of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece in 2023, framing the gesture as an “ecumenical donation” to the Greek Orthodox Church rather than to the Greek state.
According to an unauthorized source, the Vatican will transfer the artifacts to the Canadian Bishops with the explicit understanding that they will subsequently deliver them to Indigenous communities.
The kayak and other objects were initially dispatched to Rome in 1925 for a global exhibition orchestrated by Pope Pius XI, who had invited Catholic missionaries worldwide to send “examples of Indigenous life” from their respective regions.
Approximately 100,000 objects were shipped to Rome, many sourced from Indigenous communities during eras of forced conversion, cultural suppression, and notably in Canada, the residential school system. The majority became part of the Vatican’s permanent collection.
Alongside the Inuvialuit kayak from the Western Arctic, the collection includes a Haida Gwaii face mask, beaded skin moccasins, birch bark etchings, and an ivory and sealskin sculpture of a dog sled.
A significant portion of the Vatican’s Indigenous artifacts remains stored in the “Animus Mundi” ethnological section of the Museums.
Repatriation as part of the ‘healing journey’
In 2023, a year following Pope Francis’s “penitential” visit to Canada, during which he apologized for the Church’s involvement in residential schools,
