Pope Leo XIV met with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on Nov. 15 to, in the words of the Vatican, “gift” the return of 62 Indigenous “artifacts” held in the Anima Mundi collection of the Vatican Museums.

The papal narrative that these belongings are “gifts” needs correction. The Vatican says the artifacts are “part of the patrimony received on the occasion of the Vatican Missionary Exhibition (VME) of 1925.” However, as I document in my book Eternal Sovereigns: Indigenous Artists, Activists, and Travelers Reframing Rome the majority of the Indigenous belongings in the Vatican Museums were stolen from Indigenous communities during the 1920s and displayed at this exhibition.

The study divulges an important story, examining the history of the 1925 Vatican exhibit alongside destruction of Indigenous cultures, communities and lives through the Indian Act and residential schools in Canada, and genocidal activities by missionaries in partnership with the government carried out in residential schools. The book includes details of my encounters with artists, curators and archives.

As a scholar of art history and communication studies concerned with a broader anti-colonial approach to understanding Indigenous heritage, I use the terms “belongings,” “ancestral art” and “ancestors” instead of speaking of Indigenous artifacts at the Vatican.

My research aims to unpack the sovereignty of Indigenous art and ancestors held at the Vatican Museums. Currently I am tracing the life of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal protester with Dharug ancestry. As I document in the book, Fernando handed leaflets to visitors outside the VME in 1925 about the ongoing genocide of First Peoples and the need to recognize Indigenous........

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