Indigenous artifacts from Vatican returning to Canada as gift from Pope Leo

A historic collection of Indigenous artifacts held by Vatican Museums for a century was handed back to Indigenous groups across the country Saturday morning as a gift from Pope Leo.

A joint statement by the Holy See and Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops says that the return of the 62 artifacts from the Vatican Museum’s controversial ethnographic collection was initiated by the late Pope Francis as a part of his 2022 papal visit to Canada.

Francis wanted to gift the artifacts to the CCCB as a “concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity,” the statement said.

The artifacts will be reunited with their originating communities after their arrival to Canada next month

Wilton Littlechild, a residential school survivor who served as commissioner for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, was part of an Indigenous delegation that travelled in 2022 to meet with Francis at the Vatican to ask for an apology for the church’s role in residential schools and request artifacts be returned.

Littlechild said in an interview Saturday that Indigenous leaders were shown the artifacts during that visit. 

At the end of the visit, Francis said he was sorry.

Pope Francis also announced he planned to visit Canada, and he did later in the year, delivering the first apology on Canadian soil at Maskwacis, Alta., home to four reserves, including Ermineskin Cree Nation, where Littlechild is from.

Littlechild gifted Francis a headdress worn by his grandfather, a former Cree chief, during the apology in Maskwacis. It was a moment seen by people around the world.

On Saturday, Littlechild thanked Leo and the Catholic people for continuing the reconciliation journey Francis started.

“I would be remiss in not to thanking the Catholic Church for agreeing to do this in pursuit of Pope Francis’s desires,” he said in a phone interview.

“If one were to look at true reconciliation, (gifting) is the best act of reconciliation I can see from a spiritual perspective, cultural perspective and also to rebuild good relations.”

He said he remembers that when his wife, also a delegation member, had seen the artifacts at the Vatican, she remarked that some of the items weren’t being taken care of, including a headdress.

“That sticks in my mind because a chief’s headdress is a very significant part of our culture. For example, I have to smudge my headdress all the time….So it’s good these items are coming home, and will be taken care of,” Littlechild said.

Richard Smith, the Archbishop of Vancouver who was part of the delegation of Canadian bishops who met with Leo ahead of Saturday’s announcement’s, said Francis had returned to Rome after his 2022 papal visit in Canada wanting to continue the reconciliation journey.

“This whole thing arises, I would say, with the heart of Pope Francis,” he said.

“(When Pope Francis) came for the papal visit we all could see that he was really, really moved by the stories he had heard.”

Smith said he remembers that when Indigenous delegates first saw the artifacts at the Vatican, they lit up.

The items included an iconic Inuit kayak, wampum belts, war clubs, a headdress and masks.

They called the kayak artifact, in particular, “quite striking.”

“(Delegates) really hovered around it,” he said. “Those that were there were very, very knowledgeable about its background. They were able to work with Vatican officials to identify it likely came from the western Arctic.”

The items were sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries a part of the controversial 1925 World Missionary Exposition. 

They were later combined with the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection — known as the Anima Mundi museum — which has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader museum debate over the restitution of cultural goods taken from Indigenous peoples during colonial periods.

CCCB president Bishop Pierre Goudreault said in a statement that Leo’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.”

The artifacts are expected to arrive in Montreal on Dec. 6 and will be transported to the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, where they will be reunited with their originating communities.

Littlechild said a “welcome home ceremony” will be held when the artifacts arrive to Canada.

The ceremony is imperative when artifacts are being returned to their rightful owners, he said.

“A belonging of someone that died keeps that person alive,” he said.

“I’m just happy this is happening.”

— with files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2025.