The Repatriation of Indigenous Artifacts in the Vatican’s Ethnological Museum

Decolonizing the Pope’s Museum: The Repatriation of Indigenous Artifacts in the Vatican’s Ethnological Museum

ENDNOTES

On July 2022, Pope Francis apologized for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the deaths and abuse of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.1 The apology follows after Métis and Inuit delegates, consisting of residential school survivors, elders, knowledge keepers, and youth, met with Francis in Rome on March 2022, demanding access to Vatican records and collections to assess the full weight of wrongs done against their communities.2 In particular, Indigenous representatives also wanted to see their cultural artifacts, many of which were acquired when the residential school system and de-indigenization were ongoing. Some of these items also harken back to the time of Atlantic empires, which dispossessed Indigenous peoples from their land based on the doctrine of discovery. Today, Indigenous scholars are preserving their cultural heritage by retracing the origins of these artifacts held in the Vatican for repatriation.

When the delegates visited the Ethnological Museum Anima Mundi to see the Vatican’s Indigenous artifacts, they were distraught. Cassidy Caron, President of the Métis National Council, spoke for the delegation when she stated the following: “We are shocked by the insensitive display of these Inuvialuit and Indigenous artifacts at the Vatican Museum in the context of ongoing revelations related to the abuse and deaths of thousands of Indigenous children at Canadian residential schools, more than 60 per cent of which were run by the Catholic Church.”3 The delegates witnessed their respective cultural items—an Inuvialuit kayak, a beluga or killer whale sculpture, a wooden mask for Potlatch ceremonies from the

Haida Gwaii islands, a feathered headdresses, carved walrus tusks, and embroidered animal skins—unaccompanied by captions acknowledging their provenance.4 As Associated Press and Toronto Star reported, the process of repatriation may be slow since the Church sees many of these artifacts as gifts.5 However, Indigenous curators Michael Galban and Gloria Bell suspect the term “gifts” ignores the coercive power play that existed between the Church and Indigenous peoples when the artifacts were acquired.6

Canadian artifacts were displayed in the Vatican Missions Exposition in Rome of 1925 to promote missionary activity, according to missiologist Angelyn Dries.7 Due to the vast number of collections in the exposition—which displayed 100,000 artifacts from around the world—the Ethnological Museum was founded, retaining 40,000 artifacts as “gifts.” The museum currently holds 80,000 artifacts in total, dating from two million-year-old objects to present-day “gifts.”8 John Considine, a priest visiting the Exposition, described it as a “window” to the success of Catholicism around the world.9 The fact they were acquired when the Church and the Canadian government adopted a “programme of systematic cultural erasure,” as curator and professor Gerald McMaster describes, was unacknowledged.10 He adds, “museums, collectors, tourists, and even the church purchased, traded, and stole objects from Indigenous Canadians.”11 As Galban’s, Bell’s, and McMaster’s insights reveal, the ethical acquisition of many these items is suspect due to the unfair power dynamic between the Church and Indigenous peoples.

For Indigenous scholars, the artifacts were glorified spoils of conquest that originated from the Church’s participation in the doctrine of discovery. The doctrine originates from Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 bull, which justified Spanish claims over some non-Christian territories, regardless of whether they were inhabited.12 In this light, it is no wonder Bell, a Métis scholar and expert in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artifacts in early twentieth-century Italy, compares the Exposition to a Roman triumph.13 Though Canadian Archbishop David Bolen says the doctrine was rescinded with time, he agrees that a formal abrogation may be needed.14 As Shawnee-Lenape scholar Steven Newcomb argues, the doctrine normalized a language of colonial domination.15 Blake Watson also notes the language of discovery was employed in the American, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealander legal systems to dispossess Indigenous peoples from their lands.16

As Indigenous scholars are increasingly asserting “visual, cultural and intellectual sovereignties” over their heritage, the Church is slowly acknowledging its colonialist past and the artifacts’ cultural significance.17 Since 2010, for example, the Church repatriated mummies acquired in the 1925 exposition to Ecuador and Peru.18 Nevertheless, it took eighty-five years for the Holy See to realize that accepting human remains as gifts was an unconscionable act; especially for a Christian institution this reveals the extent of ignorance by which these objects were accepted. The National Catholic Reporter says the Holy See is now working

with Indigenous scholars and representatives to display their artifacts more respectfully.19 What may be considered respectful, however, may mean repatriation, not more informative displays. Will the Vatican’s Ethnological Museum heed the call for decolonization? This magazine has illustrated the rich history of the world that existed on the Atlantic rim. In the context of reconciliation efforts, it must be noted that the cultural artifacts that reside in the pope’s museum are not isolated from the past—they may be ideologically linked to the doctrine of discovery promulgated by Alexander VI’s bull of 1493, an idea that inserted itself into the legal systems of Atlantic colonies, one of which is Canada. At the crux of the controversy is the official Catholic position that sees these artifacts as gifts, but without their proper acknowledgement, they seem little else but trophies for Indigenous scholars. Though the Vatican has shown signs that it is open to repatriation, efforts to work together to reach an agreement on every single of those items—such as where they belong or whether they should be repatriated—are still to be decided. “The Catholic Church's mission was evangelical—to save people’s souls,” says McMaster, “but it is our mission—the mission of the delegations—to save our cultures.”20

Brian Thomson

MAIH (History stream)