Pope returns 62 artifacts to Indigenous Canadians as "concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity"

The Vatican on Saturday returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada as part of the Catholic Church's reckoning with its role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas.

Pope Leo XIV gave the artifacts, including an iconic Inuit kayak, and supporting documentation to a delegation of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops during an audience. According to a joint statement from the Vatican and Canadian church, the pieces were a gift and a "concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity."

The items were part of the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection, known as the Anima Mundi museum. The collection 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