Repatriation of Indigenous items held at the Vatican needs to be done the right way, say local First Nations

Gilbert Whiteduck says the repatriation of Indigenous items from the Vatican museum is an important step towards reconciliation, but the handling of those items needs to be done in a manner that reflects their sacred nature.

“We need to be very cautious about how these things are organized because it’s not just a matter of taking an object from where it's sitting in the Vatican archives and museum and just moving them over,” said Whiteduck, the education director for Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg. “Because some of these objects may very well be, depending on what it is, very sacred in themselves. And ceremony would need to be performed before they can even make this travel, the journey back to where they came from.”

The Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak released