Raymond J. de Souza: Returned kayak a symbol of Vatican-Indigenous relations

An Inuvialuit sealskin kayak was transferred to the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) this week after a century in the collections of the Vatican Museums. Fulfilling the decision of the late Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV gave the kayak and some 60 other Indigenous artifacts as a gift to the Catholic bishops of Canada, which in turn presented them in a spirit of reconciliation to Canada’s Indigenous leaders. It was a gracious and touching moment at the CMH as Inuit men from the North laid eyes on the kayak for the first time.

“A gift, unlike restitution, is offered in freedom and friendship, as a sign of renewed relationship and mutual respect between the church and Indigenous peoples,” explained Archbishop Richard Smith of Vancouver, the lead Catholic interlocutor.

It remains to be worked out where the kayak and other artifacts will be permanently housed. Indigenous institutions currently lack the capacity to properly preserve the artifacts, particularly the kayak, so they will remain at the CMH for now. That the kayak should go to the North is the consensus desire, but it may not be practical to build a suitable facility there and very few people would see it, relative to it being displayed in the Ottawa area.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report. The TRC’s reckless indictment of Canada as a wholly criminal enterprise bent on the brutalization of Indigenous peoples proved to be more persuasive than might have been originally thought, due principally to the perfervidity of the then brand-new prime minister.

Trudeau was comfortable describing Canada as a “post-national” country in part because he considered the nation itself to be a shameful initiative. Canada’s history was not, like all other countries, one of lights and shadows, but instead a long darkness awaiting the ultimate dawning of his own light.

Rooted in false premises, and fuelled by the new government’s national self-loathing, the TRC created an environment in which no falsehood was too extreme to be spread abroad, culminating in the 2021 claims of a discovery of mass graves near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Sloppy reporting thus easily fit the kayak story into the dominate post-TRC template. Sacred Indigenous items had been finagled out of Indigenous hands by unscrupulous missionaries to the Vatican, where they were displayed as quasi-trophies of conquest until public shame finally pried them away from a grudging colonialist bureaucracy. Those claims no longer even have to be made by Indigenous leaders — and were not made, by and large, in this case. The story is written even before the facts are known.

The facts about the kayak are altogether different from the post-TRC template — and, as is usually the case with actual history, are more complicated, more interesting and more hopeful.

For a special “jubilee year” in 1925, Pope Pius XI invited missionaries from all over the world to send artifacts to Rome for a special exhibition. The late 19th-century included a massive expansion of missionary efforts that brought European Christians — Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians — into contact with diverse peoples the world over. Some 100,000 artifacts arrived in Rome and were the first occasion for many pilgrims to witness the artistic and technological skills of distant cultures.

In 1925, the Vatican latterly joined the phenomenon of global cultural festivals, like London’s Crystal Palace in 1851 and the Paris World Fair in 1889.  The inclusion of works from distant lands was, by the standards of the day, a compliment to other cultures. Though the TRC template cannot imagine it, people were proud to have their own works exhibited in a major world capital.

Such was the enthusiasm for the 1925 exhibition that a permanent ethnological collection was established at the Vatican — even though vanishingly few visit the Vatican Museums for that reason. It was renovated in 2019 with a new name, Anima Mundi (“Soul of the World”), indicating that it paid tribute to the spiritual values found in all cultures.

The kayak today is an apt symbol of the more complicated relationship between missionaries and Indigenous peoples than the TRC template would allow. Inuit leaders speak of how precious the kayak is to their culture, but none were preserved in Inuit communities — only five remain in museums. The one in the Vatican Museums was made known by Globe and Mail reporting; it was previously unknown to the Inuit.

Upon its unveiling at the CMH, Inuit experts marvelled at its excellent condition. That is due to the high level of expertise in the Vatican Museums, but also because of the respect with which the items were regarded. When Canadian Indigenous leaders expressed in 2022 a desire for the kayak to return to Canada, the Vatican Museums asked its donors — the Canadian chapter of the Patrons of the Arts — for more than $100,000 to fund a world-class restoration to make it ready for return in the best possible condition.

Patrons of the Vatican Museums join to support the care of works by Michelangelo and Raphael, not watercraft from the Mackenzie River delta. That they did so is a concrete sign that relations between the Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples have been, and remain, a story of many lights, as well as shadows.

Important aspects of Indigenous culture, like the kayak, were preserved by the work of missionaries, including the first renderings of local languages into written script. The current practise of giving Indigenous names to public roadways and bridges is, for example, a fruit of that work, much like the kayak’s preservation in Rome.

When Indigenous leaders asked for the return of the kayak, the Vatican Museums identified the three-score other artifacts and suggested that they too might be of interest. The Canadian bishops, noticing that none of the items were of Métis origin, asked that a suitable artifact be included.

The kayak’s return to Canada is a rich and reconciling story, more real than yet another retelling of the TRC template.

National Post