Inuvialuit kayak, other items from Vatican unveiled at Museum of History

By Alessia Passafiume An Inuvialuit kayak more than a century old was unveiled Tuesday at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., along with a handful of other priceless Inuit items returned to Canada from the Vatican collection on Saturday. The kayak, elegantly hand-built from driftwood, sealskin and sinew, was one of the artifacts earmarked for repatriation by Inuit representatives who were given a private showing of the Vatican’s holdings in the Amina Mundi exhibit during a trip to Rome in 2022. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed was part of that delegation, which visited Rome to accept Pope Francis’s apology for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system. Obed said the late pope told him in conversation that “if items were taken forcibly or without consent,”…

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