First Nations leaders unveil more items repatriated from the Vatican

Assembly of First Nations Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, centre, looks on as sacred items are unveiled following their return from the Vatican collection during an unveiling event at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

OTTAWA — First Nations leaders on Tuesday unveiled five items repatriated to their communities after being held at the Vatican for more than a century.

They also unboxed another two crates of items with origins that have yet to be determined.

The returned items include a birch bark sap collector from Akwesasne, embroidered leather gloves from Athabasca Chipewyan, a wooden bowl and spoon from Manitoulin Island and a model cradle board, or tikinagan, from somewhere in Ontario.

The items that have not yet been traced back to their communities of origin -- which were unboxed in a private ceremony on Tuesday -- include a bow and arrow, a loom, a child-sized jacket, an adult-sized dress, bone tools, baskets and several pairs of moccasins.

Katisha Paul, the women’s representative for the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, accompanied the items on their trip back from Rome.

She was present Tuesday at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., as Indigenous leaders unscrewed the lids from the massive blue crates that carried the items, wrapped in tissue paper and protected by packing foam, across the Atlantic.

After Paul unwrapped a child-sized jacket made of hide and adorned with trade and glass seed beads, she paused with her eyes closed for a few moments.

“I was praying to whoever wore the piece, letting them know we’re OK,” Paul later told The Canadian Press.

“I instantly had a feeling that I just needed to take care of the spirit of the ancestor who wore that jacket to begin with, understanding that we are the caretakers … Even though that ancestor is no longer with us, they have direct lineage to people who are walking right now.”

Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Linda Debassige’s connection to one of the items is especially close. Her uncle’s name is etched onto the spoon and bowl from Manitoulin Island.

“He signed it by hand, and wrote on the bowl, ‘onagan,’ and on the spoon he wrote, ‘emikwan,’ in our older dialect,” Debassige said.

It took seven generations for the spoon and bowl to return home, she said.

“These items represent our history, that we’ve always been here,” she said. “That we are always going to be here.”

The items unboxed Tuesday are the last to be showcased of the 62 items repatriated to Indigenous communities in Canada after being held in the Vatican collection for decades.

In 2022, an Indigenous delegation met with Pope Francis in Rome a year after the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation announced that possible unmarked graves had been found at the site of the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

The news sparked global outrage and a national push for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

During the Rome visit, delegates were given a private viewing of items held by the church -- some of which had not been seen in public in decades.

The 62 items were among thousands sent to Rome by missionaries around the world for an exhibit organized by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

In November, Pope Leo XIV said the items would be transferred to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which said it would immediately turn them over to Indigenous communities in Canada.

That decision followed years of negotiations that at times involved then-prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said the repatriation is an emotional moment and the culmination of years of work by First Nations leaders.

“Our relatives are home,” she said Tuesday.

“For First Nations, many of these items are not simply `artifacts’ -- they are living, sacred parts of our cultures, to be treasured by communities and used in ceremony. This is a significant step in our journey to healing and reconciliation.”

She said she hopes the work done to repatriate these items will inspire other institutions holding similar artifacts to return them to their home communities. She said she will speak with Pope Leo about the other items the Church holds when she visits the Vatican later this year. She said she also will be inviting him to Canada to meet with First Nations in their own territories.

Woodhouse Nepinak said the Assembly of First Nations will be working with elders, knowledge keepers, chiefs and academics to help determine the origins of the remaining items. Once that work is done, it will be up to the nation and community to decide what happens to the objects, she said.

First Nations leaders were emotional during the public and private unveilings. Some examined the items through tear-filled eyes.

Hanna Sewell, the Ontario representative for the Assembly of First Nations youth council, looked closely at the adult-sized dress made of hide, caribou hair, porcupine quills and bones as it lay on a bed of tissue paper during the private unboxing.

She said she thought it had been too long since the dress had made noise -- as it was intended to.

She lifted it up, running her fingers across the fringe of bone beads, and invited others at the gathering to hear a sound left silent for a century.

“They must be excited on the other side, celebrating just as we’re celebrating. We felt their spirits in that hall,” Paul said.

“They are celebrating on the other side because we helped bring them home.”

Metis leaders unveiled the items they repatriated from the Vatican last month. One of the items was a model dog sled crafted sometime in the 1920s to represent the Metis sled teams that were used for trapping and transporting goods, mail and passengers from the 18th to early 20th century.

Inuit leaders unveiled their own Vatican items in December. They included a rare kayak made of driftwood, sealskin and sinew.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2026.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press