OTTAWA — 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,” it amounted to theft.
Obed said it’s not known how this kayak ended up in the Vatican but it would have been essential to the well-being of a community and used for beluga hunting.
Inuit leaders showed some of the returned items to a small group of Indigenous representatives and journalists Tuesday. Along with the kayak, the museum displayed a handful of smaller Inuit items, including a soup ladle, needle casings and an ulu knife.
The Indigenous delegation met with Pope Francis in Rome a year after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced that potential unmarked graves had been found at the site of the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. The news sparked global outrage and a national push for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
During the Rome visit, delegates were given a private viewing of some of the items held by the church — some which had not been seen in the public in decades.
Indigenous leaders were on hand in Montreal on Saturday to watch as the artifacts were removed from the belly of an Air Canada cargo jet in large crates.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2025.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
