After years of negotiations starting with a visit by the late Pope Francis in 2022, the Vatican repatriated a wealth of Indigenous cultural treasures that were unveiled this week in a warehouse belonging to the Canadian Museum of History. The institution in Gatineau, Quebec—around a 2.5-hour drive west of Montreal—is currently storing the 62-object handover while Indigenous elders and experts take stock of each piece and investigate its origins.

As reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), Vancouver Archbishop Richard Smith, representing the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said at a news conference on Tuesday, “We recognize that reconciliation is not a single event but a long journey, one that requires humility, perseverance and above all the willingness to listen.”

The objects returned were first sent to Rome for a world exhibition organized by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and remained there until Pope Francis called for their repatriation a few years ago and the recently anointed Pope Leo XIV followed through on the act.

The objects with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis...