Vatican 'Bout to Give Back Some Stolen Artifacts to Indigenous Peeps in Canada 🇨🇦🏛️

Spilling the Tea

Okay, listen up, fam. The Vatican is about to pull a major W and give back a grip of artifacts to the Indigenous community in Canada. We're talking, like, dozens of items that were chilling in the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection – even an Inuit kayak! 🛶

This whole thing started heating up after Pope Francis met with Indigenous leaders back in 2022 and apologized for the church's role in those messed-up residential schools. It was, like, a whole vibe of trying to fix things and own up to past mistakes.

The plan is to announce it real soon, and the artifacts might even be back in Canada before the end of the year. Most of these items were sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries way back in 1925 for some exhibition. Sketchy, right?

Here's the sitch: the Vatican's gonna hand the artifacts over to the Canadian bishops conference, who will then work with the Indigenous communities to figure out where they ultimately belong. First stop? The Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, where they'll ID everything and chat with Indigenous groups.

For the Indigenous community, these aren't just dusty old objects – they're "living, sacred pieces" of their culture. So, it's a huge deal that they're finally coming home. It's all part of the vibe shift towards reconciliation and acknowledging the past. Let's hope this is just the beginning, bestie!

Some folks are low-key sus that the items may not have been freely given, given the history.